Nigerians react to 2014 NIMET weather prediction

The agency advised farmers to take advantage of the prediction and plant their crops early.A vox pop conducted by Daily Trust on the prediction revealed that Nigerians are gradually disbelieving NIMET predictions because of their experience in 2013 when the agency predicted heavy rainfall that would eventually lead to flooding in most parts of the […]

The agency advised farmers to take advantage of the prediction and plant their crops early.
A vox pop conducted by Daily Trust on the prediction revealed that Nigerians are gradually disbelieving NIMET predictions because of their experience in 2013 when the agency predicted heavy rainfall that would eventually lead to flooding in most parts of the country, especially those areas that hitherto had no history of flood.
Mr Samuel Adukwu, a civil servant, said that NiMET still has a lot of work to do in order to get their predictions right, considering the fact that the 2013 prediction has failed and many Nigerians were subjected to untold hardship.
 “All we need is for the system to work and experts should have the right apparatus to work with in order to get it right,” he said.
However, Happiness Emmanuel, another respondent, said: “No one has the knowledge of when the rain will start and end but God, though scientifically they should be able to provide accurate report based on the data and evidence they have, but they don’t have the final say. People’s prayers can turn things around and make scientific prediction inaccurate.”
“I don’t believe the agency. For two years now, they have been unable to accurately predict the amount of rainfall. What people did last year due to their prediction is still fresh, but nothing happened,” Yahaya Adamu, a Niger State resident said.
He said following the inaccuracy of the past predictions of the agency, people may not take the 2014 prediction of low rainfall seriously. “I won’t be surprised if we witness abundant rainfall this year,” he added.
Yahaya, however, appealed to the government to put in place necessary measures to ensure that the effects of the expected low rainfall do not affect people, especially farmers, negatively.  
Prof. Ibrahim Baba Yakubu of the Department of Geography, Bayero University Kano, said that due to the changing climate with much concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Nigerians should prepare to accept anything regarding the weather.
“Things are changing due to the high concentration of carbon in the atmosphere, anything can happen, it can be too much rain or too much heat, the chemistry of the atmosphere has drastically changed,” he added.
He said the 2013 prediction by NIMET did not fail as Nigerians were made to believe, adding that the prediction was based on the tools and parameters available to it.