NLC canvasses for policies to address climate change issues

The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has said that climate change is very worrisome and that they have taken it up as a human right issue which they will canvass for policies to address. Wabba who stated this at a workshop organised by the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) […]

The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has said that climate change is very worrisome and that they have taken it up as a human right issue which they will canvass for policies to address.

Wabba who stated this at a workshop organised by the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna, said it was not fair for developed countries to impose their own policies on Nigeria.

He said to address climate change challenges policies on the need to have greener source of energy wee important considering that most of the sources of energy in Africa were still not the best.

“We still need the hydro and we also have the solar, but I think those options are not being considered because of the fact that the culprit countries find it very convenient to impose some of those policies on our governments and because they come with grants, our governments tend to bend more to satisfy those countries,” he said.

“There is no amount of money that will be given to us as conditional grant that will address the impact that the issue of climate change is having on our livelihoods,” he said.

Wabba explained that climate change was a human rights issue around the world because of its impact on the environment, human life, agriculture and health, adding that due to climate change, the amount of rainfall had reduced in the last five years 

All these, according to him, were affecting agriculture, which was the major pre-occupation of the country and that desert encroachment was advancing at a very high propensity which posed a lot of challenges to human existence.

“The Federal Government is working on a 2000 kilometer shelter belt, which will be built from the north-west to the north- east and to our border with Niger. This is done because if we allow the situation to continue,