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Africa Climate Summit Built On False Solutions, Friends Of Earth Africa Alleges

Published

9 months ago

August 23, 2023

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

Environmental activists mostly drawn from Africa have raised the alarm that the the forthcoming Africa Climate Submit/Week is nothing but an event built on false solutions rather than a real solution.

They further argued that the event, disguised to offer solutions to the many climate issues in Africa, is a false, and never a solution to climate issues such as mining, etc, which, according to them, are caused by “the greed of filthy lucre by both African governments and their former colonial masters.”

The environmental activists and civil society members who took this position via a Webinar on Tuesday, were drawn from South Africa, DRC Congo Zimbabwe, Nigeria etc.

Speaking, Ubrei-Joe Maimoni, Coordinator, Climate Justice and Energy Program Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Africa, described as sad that state of climate justice in Africa.

Maimoni, who doubles as Program Manager, Environmental Rights Action Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), lamented that even after 67 years of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, people in the region are still living in a polluted environment and complete darkness.

“Friends of the Earth Africa believes that a Just Recovery Renewable Energy Plan for Africa built on environmental, social, gender and economic justice is urgently needed to address all the impacts of the multiple interrelated crises across the continent, which are being compounded by the neo-liberal doctrine,” he added.

He noted that while the crisis created by the climate and COVID-19 still lingers, Africans have seen how the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is mounting pressure on the African continent to help bridge the gap of the energy cut from Russia to other parts of Africa.

While calling on the global North not to let Africa burn, Maimoni said it’s obvious that Africa has witnessed the worst cases of climate disasters – such as cyclone, flooding, drought and sesertification among others.

He emphasized the need for Africa to move away from harmful fossil fuels towards a transformed energy system that is clean, renewable, democratic and actually serves its people.

He further emphasised the need for African leaders to recognise socially owned and controlled renewable energy as a right, and also to ensure that it is prioritised in policy agenda and fiscal budgets, warning that energy should not be developed solely for profit but to ensure dignity.

He also called on African governments to work with all people and remove all obstacles that may retard progress and/or detract from attaining this goal.

In her remarks, Energy Program Coordinator/Friends of the Earth International Climate Justice, Tyler Booth, identified some of the false solutions as the calls for a carbon market; driving Renewable Energy growth for global needs rather than for African needs, and the commodification of nature through the planned Blue economy ideas.

She argued that Africa doesn’t need carbon markets but rather needs real climate finance.

She added that carbon markets are dangerous distractions and do not offer a financial solution capable of reaching the grassroots communities that are already feeling the impacts.

According to her, the most anticipated Blue Economy is a commodification of nature while the promotion of liveable cities is focused on African cities to the detriment of Africa’s rural areas.

‘…data from the World Bank estimates 58% of the total population lives in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa; In Africa, over 400 million people live in rural areas ” she quoted, adding that transforming Africa’s food systems needs is to ensure it is towards food sovereignty and agroecology,” she added.

In her presentation, titled “How Just is the Transition in Africa?”, a supporter of the Don’t Gas Africa, and Africa Movement of Movements, Lorraine Chiponda from Zimbabwe, stated that Africa with over a billion people and 55 countries is home to diverse economies, resources, ecosystems and cultures.

Chiponda lamented that decades after independence, African countries continue to face famine, energy poverty, regional conflict, patriarchal oppression, economic insecurity, & debt crises that are increasingly compounded by climate change, systemic and structural as well as financial and trade systems development, climate and energy justice.

She said what an African transition can look like is to have decolonized systems; decentralised systems;
Champion people’s alternative circular economies and ensure food and water sovereignty; monetary and energy sovereignty as well as breaking free from development traps and false solutions.

Others who spoke at the Webinar lamented the dire effect of mining on Africa which included human rights abuses, land grabbing, environmental degradation, gender oppression as well as the inherent health challenges which continue on a daily basis.

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JUST IN: Tinubu Appoints Governing Board Members For 111 Tertiary Institutions

Published

6 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointments of at least 555 persons to serve as Pro-chancellors/Chairmen and members of Governing Boards of 111 federal universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

This followed Tinubu’s assent to a list of nominees selected by the Ministry of Education.

An advertorial by the Education Ministry sighted by The PUNCH showed the appointment of a chairperson and four members for each of the institutions.

It was signed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack.

“The inauguration and retreat for the Governing Councils will take place on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31, 2024, at the National Universities Commission, 26 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. Both events will commence at 9:00am daily,” said Walson-Jack.

When contacted for confirmation, the Presidency said the list emanated from the Ministry of Education.

“This is from the Federal Ministry of Education…they make the nominations and forward them to the President to sign. But they are at liberty to release it from their end,” the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, told The PUNCH on Sunday.

The appointments come days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities had threatened to embark on another strike, potentially disrupting the academic calendar and causing further setbacks in the country’s higher education sector.

The union, on Tuesday, decried the failure of the Federal Government to appoint Governing Councils for federal universities.

The union also faulted what it described as the nonchalant attitude of the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to matters about academics in federal universities.

The body of academics, during a briefing at the University of Abuja, also faulted the 35 per cent salary increment for professors and the 25 per cent salary increment for other academics in the university system.

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HOMEF Applauds NASS On Decision To Investigate GMOs In Nigeria

Published

7 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

…says Nigeria needs to prioritise public health

Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and the GMO-Free Nigeria
Alliance have commended the House of Representatives on the resolution to comprehensively investigate the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into Nigeria and for a halt on approval of new products
pending the completion of that investigation.

This is as the House of Representatives also urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to ensure labelling of GM crops already in the country.

The House resolution to investigate the introduction of GMOs into Nigeria followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Muktar Shagaya at a plenary session held on Thursday 16th May 2024.

In a statement made available to INFO DAILY Kome Odhomor, Media/Communication Lead, HOMEF, the Executive Director of the organisation, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, said ass the lawmaker rightly explained, the introduction of GMOs in Nigeria raises serious concerns about safety, regulatory oversight, and their potential impacts on the country’s biosafety.

He noted that the investigation which has been long “overdue is vital to save the country from the dangerous path to food colonialism, contamination of our genetic resources, loss of
biodiversity/nutritional diversity, soil degradation, and overall
disruption of our agriculture and food systems.”

Bassey continued: “This investigation must be unbiased and thorough. To ensure this, the National Assembly should engage independent researchers to avoid contamination of the process by GMO promoters.

“This investigation should consider Nigeria’s agricultural landscape and investigate the underlying
causes of hunger/food insecurity and as well establish definite measures to address those issues. This is the time to rescue Nigerians from being used for risky experimentations.”

The Executive Director also stressed the need for critical examination of the National Biosafety Management Agency Act for its fitness for purpose.

He further added: “That law needs to be completely reworked to close existing loopholes including the composition of its governing/decision making board by excluding GMO promoters such as the National Biotechnology Development Agency; the lack of provision on strict liability, inadequate public consultation measures, absolute decision-making powers of the agency, minimal reference to the precautionary principal and many others.

“This was the submission of Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, Food Sovereignty Activist and Deputy Executive Director at Friends of the Earth Nigeria.”

Also reacting to the Green Chamber’s call on NAFDAC to label GMO crops in the country, HOMEF’s Director of Programmes and lead on Hunger Politics, Joyce Brown, noted that the agency will need to devise strategies to have foods sold in local markets in basins, by the road sides, and in processed forms like Ogi and Akara labelled to ensure informed decision-making by the majority of people who purchase food from these sources.

“This exercise will prove that GMOs do not fit our socio-economic context. Over the years, market shelf surveys conducted by HOMEF has revealed over 50 different processed/packaged foods labelled as produced using genetically modified ingredients,” she added.

Brown advised that permits for commercialisation of GMO products such as Bt Cowpea, Tela Maize, Bt Corn and all others be suspended pending the result of the investigation by the House Committee on Agriculture and others.

The statement reaffirmed the submission by Rep. Shagaya that there’s need to prioritise public health, biodiversity, increased support of small holder farmers in terms of extension service, provision of infrastructure (to curtail waste), access to credits, access to land and the growth of our local economy.

“Nigeria should adopt agroecological farming which aligns well with our socio economic and socio cultural
context. Agroecology delivers increased productivity and economic resilience, revises/nourishes ecosystems, strengthens local economies, mitigates climate change and promotes food sovereignty,” the statement concluded.

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Mother Of Five Jailed For Forging Late Abba Kyari’s Signature

Published

15 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

A mother of five, Ramat Mba, has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment by a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Gwagwalada, Abuja, for her involvement in an employment scam.

Ramat who was also found guilty of forging the signature of the late Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, was arraigned before the court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission on a 5-count bordering on cheating, fraud and forgery, contrary to Section 13 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and Sections 320(b), 366 of the Penal Code Cap 89 laws of Northern Nigeria.

She reportedly committed the offence sometime in 2020 when she collected N4.5 million from several job seekers, promising to secure jobs for them with the ICPC and National Air Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).

Also, the documentary evidence tendered showed that the convict fraudulently forged the letterhead of the Office of the Chief of Staff to former President Buhari and his signature. The letter, addressed to the ICPC Chairman, was a request for the recruitment of three individuals by the commission.

However, the late CoS, in a written correspondence that was also tendered in court as an exhibit, distanced himself or his office from authorising the letter.

Commenting on the sentencing, spokesperson for the ICPC, Demola Bakare said;

“The trial judge, Justice Muhammad, in his judgment on May 9, 2024, convicted the mother of five children on counts 1, 2, 3 and 5 that border on cheating and forgery, while she was discharged on count 4 which borders on felony.

“Justice Muhammad, during the sentencing on Thursday, pronounced a six-month jail term or N100,000 option of fine on counts 1, 2 and 3 on the convict.

“The presiding judge, who stressed the status of the convict as a first-time offender and a mother, also sentenced her to one-year imprisonment or N150,000 option on fine on count 5 which borders on forgery.”