Niger Govt Seeks Partnership To Address Climate Change

By Oduyemi Odumade

Niger State Governor Muhammed Umaru Bago, has sought the partnership of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to plant trees as a means of tackling climate change.

The Governor who made this known at an event organized on the sidelines of the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in the United Arab Emirates said the afforestation would check high emission of green house gases.

According to the Governor, Niger State has 76, 000 square kilometers of arable land which will serve for planting trees aimed at balancing the ecosystem.

He said in addressing climate change issues it was critical to address three areas to include the root causes, its impact and the way forward.

Bago said Nigeria understands the realities of global warming and expressed the readiness of the country to combat it.

He said,”I am really happy to be part of this auspicious occasion. When the MD Of the NDDC spoke he spoke very well. Now in undertaking climate change there are three very important levels. One, the root causes which you explained very well, the exploration of oil and also flaring of gas. The second issue is the impact of that activity to humanity and environment. The third one one that I am sure you would have enumerated is what I would help you to do which is the way forward. How do we mitigate this?

“Now I am from Niger State. It is 76,000 square kilometers of arable land. It has two major rivers flowing through, it has four hydro-powered dams. And this land is arable.

“Now that we are here, we need to encourage the NDDC to join in the crusade of planting trees to balance the ecosystem. When you spoke about carbon credit, one of the advantages is planting trees. Where you have high emission, the ecosystem is affected.

“Now where you have low emission and you have plenty reserve of land, what we need to do is to make sure we increase our capacity in afforestation, first. Secondly to also prepare us to understand the challenges of agriculture is land preparation.

“So the companies who are in this exploration should come in as a corporate social responsibility in making sure that we afforestate our land and reduce emission. When you do that you change alternative source of energy. Instead of fossil fuel, we come back to green fuel or blue energy.”

Edited By Grace Namiji