By: VITALIS UGOH, Calabar.
A University don, Prof. Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye, Deputy Vice Chancellor (administration) university of Benin, has identifies lack of legal and regulatory framework as a challenge mitigating against Climate Change issues in Nigeria.
He said “although, there is a bill creating the national climate change commission charged with the responsibility of coordinating the response to climate change, the Commission is nonexistent”.
Ezemonye, who is president of Nigerian Environmental Society and a professor of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Forensics, made this observation while delivering a keynote address at the 18th Bassey Andah Memorial lecture entitled “The Nigerian Environment: a threatened heritage” at Transcorp hotels Calabar.
He said ” despite the existence of several institutions in the country like NESERA and SCCU in the Federal Ministry of Environment, NIMET, the nations institutional capacity to respond effectively to climate change has remained very weak”.
According to him ” this is because there is no formal institutional structures at state and local government levels to address climatee change”.
He mentioned lack of infrastructure, dearth of expertise and knowledge base, ignorance and awareness on issues surrounding climate change as causes hampering its effectiveness.
Also, the guest speaker Arch. Nnimmo Bassey, director, health of mother earth foundation (HOMEF) and coordinator, Oikwatch international in his presentation said “unless we know what we have, we may not know what we have lost and are losing”.
He said ” there is an urgent need for an inventory of environmental assets in Nigeria. We urgently need to institute a regular assessment of the state of the Nigerian environment as a means of revealing threats and fashioning the means for tackling the threats”.
Communities, he said, should be empowered to manage their forests because they have the knowledge and the passion to preserve local biodiversity as well as the customs and tradition s associated with such forests”.
Earlier, the chairman of this year’s lecture, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, Executive director, Basel convention coordinating centre for training and technology transfer for the African Region, had commended the organisers of the Bassey Andah memorial lectures and urged them to keep the spirit on.
He described late Prof. Bassey Andah as a fulfilled scholar whose works had stood the test of time even after his demise several years ago.
He said the theme was very timely given the threatening global climate change.
Late Prof. Bassey Andah was a thorough bred scholar and a teacher, an astute university administrator and the first black African President of the World Archaeology Congress.
He died on December 22nd, 1997.
He said “although, there is a bill creating the national climate change commission charged with the responsibility of coordinating the response to climate change, the Commission is nonexistent”.
Ezemonye, who is president of Nigerian Environmental Society and a professor of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Forensics, made this observation while delivering a keynote address at the 18th Bassey Andah Memorial lecture entitled “The Nigerian Environment: a threatened heritage” at Transcorp hotels Calabar.
He said ” despite the existence of several institutions in the country like NESERA and SCCU in the Federal Ministry of Environment, NIMET, the nations institutional capacity to respond effectively to climate change has remained very weak”.
According to him ” this is because there is no formal institutional structures at state and local government levels to address climatee change”.
He mentioned lack of infrastructure, dearth of expertise and knowledge base, ignorance and awareness on issues surrounding climate change as causes hampering its effectiveness.
Also, the guest speaker Arch. Nnimmo Bassey, director, health of mother earth foundation (HOMEF) and coordinator, Oikwatch international in his presentation said “unless we know what we have, we may not know what we have lost and are losing”.
He said ” there is an urgent need for an inventory of environmental assets in Nigeria. We urgently need to institute a regular assessment of the state of the Nigerian environment as a means of revealing threats and fashioning the means for tackling the threats”.
Communities, he said, should be empowered to manage their forests because they have the knowledge and the passion to preserve local biodiversity as well as the customs and tradition s associated with such forests”.
Earlier, the chairman of this year’s lecture, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, Executive director, Basel convention coordinating centre for training and technology transfer for the African Region, had commended the organisers of the Bassey Andah memorial lectures and urged them to keep the spirit on.
He described late Prof. Bassey Andah as a fulfilled scholar whose works had stood the test of time even after his demise several years ago.
He said the theme was very timely given the threatening global climate change.
Late Prof. Bassey Andah was a thorough bred scholar and a teacher, an astute university administrator and the first black African President of the World Archaeology Congress.
He died on December 22nd, 1997.
