At the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, revealed Nigeria’s successful collaboration with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in establishing humanitarian response stations nationwide. This strategic initiative aims to provide swift assistance to disaster victims in Nigeria.
Dr. Edu said Nigeria’s appeal to the UAE for support in addressing humanitarian crises caused by climate change-induced insurgency in the Northeast region, focusing on alleviating poverty in the most affected areas.
As part of this collaboration, the Red Crescent, an equivalent of the Red Cross in the UAE, has committed to fortify Nigeria’s humanitarian response system.
During interactions with UAE officials, Dr. Edu highlighted climate change as a major contributor to Nigeria’s humanitarian crises and poverty, indicating its influence in recruiting youths for terrorist organisations.
She stressed her ministry’s engagement at COP28 to secure support for job creation, poverty alleviation, and alignment with the Paris Agreement to mitigate natural disasters that trigger humanitarian crises.
Dr. Edu asserted that her ministry’s mandate is intrinsically tied to climate change, citing flooding, the shrinking Lake Chad Basin, and livelihood losses affecting millions as direct consequences of climate change. She highlighted the vulnerability of affected communities, rendering them susceptible to recruitment by terrorist groups due to poverty.
She said, “The flooding which you see every other time in Nigeria is as a result of climate change. And of course, there are issues around the drying up of the Lake Chad Basin, as well as the Sahel and the rest of it, which has led to people losing their livelihoods, over 40 million persons, who depend on this Lake Chad Basin, losing their livelihoods.
“Now these people have become very gullible. They go into poverty, and they can now become easy prey for people who want to recruit into all of these terrorist organisations that are causing insurgency.
“We can’t be trying to bring people out of humanitarian crises and then allowing more people to fall in as a result of climate change. And that’s why we are at this meeting.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, highlighted Nigeria’s determination at COP28 to advocate for positions beneficial to the nation and its people. He underscored the significance of the conference’s focus on adaptation, mitigation, and addressing loss and damage issues faced by vulnerable countries like Nigeria due to climate change.
Lawal affirmed that the conference’s objectives align with Nigeria’s priorities, emphasising the commitment of advanced economies to assist developing nations in adaptation efforts, including substantial financial commitments towards mitigating loss and damage caused by climate change-induced disasters.
He said, “The main focus of this year’s conference has to do with the issue of adaptation, and mitigation. And the biggest issue is those of loss and damage, which I think is one that affects most of us because we have for a long time been victims of climate change, which is not really our own making.
“It is the making of the industrialised world that has created a lot of climate issues that have affected vulnerable countries, of which Nigeria is part of it: desertification, coastal erosion and a lot of issues that led to all this.
“So, this year, I think we are lucky. The current president of COP is very determined. I was very impressed with his speech.”