Climate change enthusiasts gathered at the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan on Friday 9th March 2018 to watch the popular documentary – Nowhere to Run. The event was co-organised by Sustyvibes, CESDEV and Project Forward Everyone. The first of its kind by Sustyvibes in the ancient city, it had representatives from SDSN Youth University of Ibadan, Clean Edge Solution, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nature on Our Watch, Waste Smart Initiative, and Clean Ibadan Initiative among others. The documentary is the property of the Sheu Musa Yar’ Adua Foundation and is intended to awaken people’s consciousness about the reality of climate change in Nigeria.
Many of those present at the screening agreed that a lot of advocacy still needs to be done to call people to caution their activities that negatively impact the environment. To address climate change issues in Nigeria, some of the participants recommended simplifying the message of climate change by translating the documentary into local languages and making it readily available to a wider audience. As well as taking environmental campaigns to primary schools to instil the proper attitude towards the environment at a young age.
While giving his comments after the screening, Dr Olugbade Omotajo, the Director of Primary Healthcare and Disease Control, Oyo State Local Government Service Commission, said that the problem of Nigeria is policy implementation. He said, “Policy implementation is a problem in Nigeria. Imagine that despite the law promulgated for gas flaring to end by 1998, Nigeria still loses a lot of its gas to flaring.”
As a solution to the policy problem, he suggested the need for government to strengthen institutions to achieve their purposes. “Government should allow institutions to operate and function if they must derive maximum benefits from their mandate”, he said.
