By Samuel Oyejola
The Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Christopher Thornley said his country is willing to support Nigeria to battle climate change in the country as this would help boost the economic development of Nigeria in the of face recent economic realities.
The high commissioner said, his country is fully committed to strengthening her relationship with Nigeria stressing that his country and her host have a lot in common especially land mass and people.
He said this at the public show of a film titled, “No Where to Run” produced by the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation with financial support from the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria.
The film which was screened at Baze University in Abuja explained Nigeria’s climate and environmental crisis and advanced renewable energy as transformational access to power in the country. “No Where to Run” explained the environmental degradation in the Niger-Delta caused by gas flaring, oil-spillage and deforestation in the northern part of the country caused by tree felling.
Thornley observed that there is a clear link between the security issue, the climate and environmental change in Nigeria.
He pointed out that the agricultural sector is particularly at risk of desertification at a time Nigeria is trying to diversify her economy. In his word, he was optimistic that the film will “shake a lot of people out of complacency and challenge them to take action”.
One of the panelists at the screening, Professor Mohammed Wader of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Abuja argued that environmental change is nonscientific but a political issue and as such should be tackled politically.
He lamented that rather than challenge the multi-national corporations who came to Nigeria for business to be environmental friendly the film blamed Africans for destroying its environment. “The people”, he said, “who destroy the environment are those controlling the political system of the country with their transnational corporations as their accomplices.”
