By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) in collaboration with the Borno State Government (BOSG) has organized a 2-day workshop on climate change awareness sensitization and use of efficient stoves training for Borno women in Maiduguri from Thursday, 22nd to Friday, 23rd September 2022.
The training programme which lasted for two days is to train hundreds of women across the 27 LGAs of the state, was held at the Lake Chad Reserach Institute (LCRI) Conference Hall Maiduguri, with facilitators from the institute.
Managing Director/CEO, NEDC, Alhaji Mohammed Goni Alkali in his welcome address at the workshop on climate change sensitization, awareness and use of efficient stoves held on Thursday for female participants, said, “The NEDC’s concept on the training is that the global climate change has emerged as a challenge faced by every nation in the world. Nigeria’s North East exemplifies a typical extreme case of the country’s version of climate change, reveling in ecological imbalance and accompanied with devastating consequences.
” It is evident that the North East grapples with an unprecedented number of “climate induced migrations” courtesy of the multi-faceted climate change and its palpable effects, ranging from desertification, drought, flooding and the near disappearance of the Lake Chad Basin which all put the region in a dire strait.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change that has exacerbated different conflicts in the North East, from the insurgency to communal conflicts over the years.
“The drying up of the Lake Chad, the southward expansion of the Sahara Desert, floods being experienced across many states, menace of the herdsmen/farmers clashes necessitated by the diminishing availability of forests and grazing lands, are all obvious problems associated with climate change in the region,” Alkali said
A resource person, Hajiya Fatima Makintamari Mustapha, the Director of Administration with the Lake Chad Reserach Institute
Maiduguri said that the workshop will create awareness on how to use efficient stoves without smokes, to teach women how to adapt to climate change and environment.
She added that the participants will be extensively trained on how to use the efficient stoves and contribute immensely to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Fatima assured the female participants that the efficient stoves will be distributed to them to go home and use after the training, while appreciating the support of the Borno State Government in collaborating with the commission to organize the workshop for women folk in the state.
According to her, adaptation in climate change means to adopt to changes in climate or weather change, what to do, how to do it and when to adapt to climate change which includes individual and corporate attitude, behaviours and characters on how to reduce or stop certain environmental emission and pollution.
She also talked about climate change mitigation and how countries, nations and governments at different levels can implement strategies to reduce environmental emissions and pollution, which threaten health of people, destroy crops, plants, trees, forests, land and pollute the air, sea, etc.
The resource persons stressed that pollution and emission have great consequences on the greenhouse by way of increasing temperature, precipitation and other things that are harmful to the environment, while highlighting effects of traditional cooking with coal and wood, as well as felling of trees for firewood and charcoal.
She disclosed that the other measures that have become very important and strategic to be adopted even at the global level in global warming towards mitigating and adapting climate change while emphasizing on smart energy stoves, climate smart agriculture, energy saving balance, tackle consumerism, 3Rs, of waste management and avoidance of deforestation.
Also, Hajiya A’isha Buba, the Principal Reserach Officer (PRO) as a resource person, dwelt on effects or impact of climate change which have been detrimental to lives and property as a result of the large size of human, industrial, agricultural, commercial, educational infrastructural and electrical or mechanical activities.
She noted that all these human activities result in emissions and pollution that are harmful to human life and damaging of property, most especially, land, water, air and other environmental pollution, polluting the air, water, land and creating human ill-health as well as green house.
At the end of the two days training workshop, the women were each given efficient stoves to go home with and use as well as teach other women how to use the efficient stoves (ES), to stem effects of climate change and strategies to adopt
Some of the participants, Madam Talatu Dibal from Borno State Ministry of Environment and Maryam Zarma from Jiddari Polo Ward of Maiduguri while speaking to newsmen about the workshop, expressed gratitude to the commission and the state government for organizing such training for them.
While Mrs. Pindar Adamu of
Sulummuri Area, Maiduguri and Falamta Abubakar of Kumshe Ward of Maiduguri metropolis, thanked the organizers for giving them the opportunity to benefit and exposure in saving their lives, health, environment, land and property with the knowledge of climate change and use of efficient stoves respectively.
