COP28: Tinubu’s Hypocrisy On Climate Change

 By Olu Fasan

So, Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s new president, believes that climate change is a Nigerian problem after all. In fact, so much does he believe Nigeria has a climate-change problem that he led a delegation of 1,411 people to this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP28, which took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12. Yet, just a few months ago, Tinubu was cynical and dismissive about climate-change mitigation in Nigeria.

*Tinubu with some members of the large Nigerian delegation to COP 28

In October last year, during the presidential election campaign, Tinubu spoke at the interactive session of the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna. Asked about climate change, he responded: “It’s a question of how you prevent a church rat from eating poisoned holy communion.” He then added: “We need to tell the West, if they don’t guarantee our finances, we are not going to comply with their climate change.”

Gas Flaring Means Cash Burning

 By Ray Ekpu

Most literate Nigerians have heard or read about gas flaring but it may not mean much to them. Some of them may know that gas flaring is done in the oil producing states of the country but they may not know what it means to Nigeria or Nigerians who live in those areas.

Even though it is a very important subject in economic terms it is not a subject that most people talk or write about. But it is a subject that has featured in the lives of some Nigerians since oil was discovered in 1956 in Nigeria. That is because gas flaring brings a lot of misery to those who live where the gas is flared. We will come to this later.