Press Releases

Climate Change Summit: State Governors Endorse Need For Awareness
…Praise Vision behind Eko Atlantic City Project

May 4, 2010 - State Governors who attended the Governors’ Session of the 2nd Lagos Climate Change Summit Tuesday agreed that there is an urgent need to create more awareness among Nigerians on the impact of their daily activities on the environment.

Some of the Governors, or their representatives, who spoke to newsmen after the event at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, stated their commitment to increasing awareness in their States saying a lot of people in the country, including the leaders are yet to come to terms with the linkage between their activities and Climate Change.

They also commended the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) for not only the initiative of convening the Summit but also undertaking the landmark Eko Atlantic Project as a demonstration of the need to challenge the elements and protect the Lagos environment from being submerged by the Ocean.

Speaking on the Summit, the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said the first lesson taken from it is to raise awareness among the people in the different states of the country, pointing out that a lot of Nigerian leaders both in and out of government do not see any link between what they do and how it impacts on the environment.

“We all do lament environmental change as we notice the unusual changes that happen around us. We talk in loose and general terms about how the environment is changing, the Climate Change and all that; it is a common discussion in beer parlours and so on. But to spare time to focus on what we must now do in order to refocus attention on it, not many of us have done it and governments have not done enough to put this on the front burner”, Governor Oshiomhole said.

Saying that governments cannot afford not to care about the changes in the environment, Governor Oshiomhole warned, “But if we do not care, we put our planet in danger, and as we have all come to realize, without the planet, nothing exists”.  

“I think, more than anything else, this gathering of today is bound to raise awareness and I expect that, at the very least, what each and everyone of us can do is to go back and revisit the agenda and see  how we can bring every man and woman in the state to buy into the agenda and begin to think of the environment in whatever action they are taking”, the Governor said.

On his impression of the Eko Atlantic Project, Oshiomhole declared, “I think it’s a bold and courageous step the Lagos State Government is taking to confront the Atlantic Ocean and restore the original map of Lagos. Many will think it is impossible, a dream. But, as you can see, it is no longer a dream; it is a reality. Part of the Atlantic Ocean has already been reclaimed and the project is on.

“I am thrilled that this can happen in Nigeria and it is happening in Lagos. So I think it is a thing that every fair man in Nigeria will appreciate and I salute the courage of the Governor”, Oshiomhole said.

In his remarks, the Deputy Governor of Delta State , Professor Amos Utuama (SAN) who represented the Delta State Governor at the Summit described the Eko Atlantic  Project as “One single greatest project in our generation”, saying Lagos State Government has taken  a bold step towards confronting the effect of Climate Change.

On his experience at the Summit, Professor Utuama said it will assist the Government in Delta State in what it is already doing towards combating the menace of Climate Change adding that the Government already has a programme and a policy which it is working on.

He warned that Nigeria must begin to look for alternative sources to sustain and grow her economy as countries like America, who are the major buyers of Nigeria’s Economic mainstay - oil - are seriously investing in alternative sources of energy.

“America is working consistently and persistently on alternative energy resource and America is one of the largest consumers of our oil. If this happens, and we are not planning towards it, our economy will collapse”, he said.

The Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Ali Modu Sherrif, in his remarks,   commended the initiative of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) to call the governors together to make them aware of the danger that must be fought collectively.

Governor Sherrif, who said Borno and Lagos face similar extreme menace of the desert and the ocean respectively, declared, “The summit gave us the real opportunity to tackle the problem.  Generally, Nigerians are unaware of these challenges because, even though they watch the CNN and listen to discussions on Climate Change, they do not associate it with their daily activities and the impact on the environment”.

The Governor said he is encouraged to join hands with the neighbouring states of Yobe and Gombe to tackle Desert encroachment but added that a major work lies in making the people aware and buy into the commitment of the governments to confront and fight “the battle”.

In his own remarks, Governor Fashola said the summit has achieved its purpose of bringing Nigerian leaders together “to increase the agents and drivers of change”, adding that although it  is undeniable that the Climate is being affected more by the activities of industrialized nations, this is not the time to apportion blames.

“The reality is that the impact of the Climate Change is not discriminatory. Earthquakes and flood do not discriminate between the poor and the rich nations and, therefore, one of the things we have proposed that led us to the present Summit is that national governments are not the best suited agencies for addressing the problem.

“It requires a bottom-up local approach so that everybody will act globally. It requires not the league of nations but the league of cities where mayors and governors will be able to exchange ideas on a trans-boundary basis that does not require any sovereign ratification. It requires a change of the existing legal order and summits like this help to bring to the fore the need to set framework for a new legal order”, the Governor said.

The Eko Atlantic Project, the Governor said, is a mitigation project to protect Victoria Island and Ikoyi from erosion from the Atlantic Ocean “and this is a project that is in Nigeria”.