Let us get down to
the main course rather than nibble around the delicacy of starters.
That climate talk shop in Cancun, Mexico was actually about the
everlasting subject of global poverty. The Conference of the Parties,
like its predecessors in Copenhagen and elsewhere, is an annual
extravaganza of serious-minded scientists and politicians, inquisitive
civil society, but also a motley crew of colourful conference tourists
and shopaholics. Cancun strove to construct durable shock absorbers for
the poor to cope with the rough ride on the bumpy, climate dirt track.
Their vehicle is named “adaptation”. The clarion call is now clearly to
focus on solutions. Most delegates from Africa, in total disregard of
the transnational mantra to promote, “popular participation and
empowerment,” or the concepts of a “global village,” were the wealthy
of their continent. Nigeria set a good example for other African
nations by taking some local government representatives in its bloated
contingent. But the legendary corruption at the local governance level
in our country cancels out the good and insightful intentions.
There are folks
preaching that the evil effects of global warming are neutral and
affect all strata of humankind the same way. This is false! The point
to worry about is not so much over the physical processes, but about
the social and economic impact, which is why the poor are particularly
vulnerable and imperiled.
If international
development statistics are correct, then anyone walking a
hypothetically representative transect in Nigeria should encounter 70
people living below two US dollars a day in every 100. It is a high
strike rate, and these impoverished fellow citizens live in darkness
and ignorance of global warming. Rural people are aware of consequences
and symptoms of climate change, but where clinical history is unknown,
do not expect diagnosis, innovation and curative measures to follow.
UN politics around
climate change remains somewhat cynical — the rich mitigate by cutting
emissions, the poor adapt to the evils of climate change. To
paraphrase, at climate change conferences, the industrial nations and
major culprits of global warming are brusquely instructed to reduce
their carbon dioxide emissions to stipulated levels in marked-out
periods. Poor countries may continue warming up the earth quietly, as
they industrialize, but will be encouraged through financial injections
from the rich for adaptation to climate change impacts.
Help your poor
Adaptation is
strewn with dangers, and we’ve got to monitor a likely pattern in
Nigeria where the concept could easily result in “adaptation funds”
vanishing into foreign accounts of corrupt elite. The fate of poor
Nigerians is then forgotten under the excuse that they are illiterate
and difficult. It is imperative that the masses are better informed
over climate change adaptation processes and politics now. The mistake
must not be made to package solutions and arrive at villages for the
start of so-called “pilot projects”. Kanayo Nwanze, director of the
International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD in Rome recently
made an unforgettable statement in Abuja.
“No country develops the other for it,” he said.
You do not hear that sort of message from Africans working for
international donor agencies, at least not in public. Mr. Nwanze said
it loud and clear in the presence of both bilateral and multilateral
donors, some of whom nodded in agreement. Nigeria does not receive as
much foreign development assistance as Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique or
Mali. I recall Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala saying this was not a bad thing. You
couldn’t agree with her more. The world expects Nigeria, the “giant of
Africa” to do more for its poor people and stop begging for development
aid.
