The media and climate change awareness in Nigeria

By Nnaemeka Meribe

21 September, 2018

• Receeding Lake Chad. Image by Sani Ahmad Usman/ Wikimedia Commons 

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Politics is currently in the air in Nigeria. In the next four months, voters in Africa’s most populous country will go to the polls to cast their votes in the general elections.

Electioneering is almost at its peak. High level political horse- trading is currently going on. Politicians are aligning and re-aligning to actualise their ambitions after losing out in the power play within their former parties. There is heavy traffic on soap boxes in the urban and rural areas across the country, with politician after politician mounting to promise a better life to the citizens if elected or re-elected.

The traditional news media have been chronicling the events, devoting substantial amounts of space and time to the political activities. They are also smiling to the banks as the politicians, political parties and interest groups are buying space and time for political advertisements in a manner unprecedented in history.

Similarly, political discourses dominate the platform offered by the social media sites regularly visited by Nigerians. Sometimes, it seems as if war is about to break out in the social media between opposing sides. Rather than promote their candidates, supporters engage in mudslinging and campaigns of calumny.

Some smart guys on social media are also smiling to the banks— sponsored public opinion manipulators called social media influencers. They are people with large number of friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively. Politicians pay them to promote their candidature.

Apparently, nothing else but politics matters in Nigeria now.

Something missing

But in all the speeches, promises and plans the politicians are making, something potentially cataclysmic for humanity is being ignored: Climate change. The manifestos of all the political parties are silent on climate change. Regrettably, no one seems to question the politicians on this. The media, which should be asking the question, also appears to be as mute as the politicians on climate change, an indication that the phenomenon is not regarded as an issue of immediate concern in the country.

Reality of climate change

Climate change, the average change in weather over a period -usually 30 years or more, is probably the greatest threat facing humanity. It is expected to present a heightened risk, new combinations of risks of potentially grave consequences for the health and survival of humans, flora and fauna as well as other species in the environment.

Clearly, there is need to act urgently on climate change. The implications of delaying actions on the issue will be devastating. As the immediate past United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, warned, “time is running out and the more we delay, the more we willpay”.

The Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC), a body of world leading climate scientists established under theUnited Nations (UN), has in several reports stressed the vulnerability of developing countries to climate change. A vulnerability worsened by a composite of developmental challenges such as endemic poverty, complex governance and institutional dimensions; limited access to capital, including markets, infrastructure and technology; ecosystem degradation; and complex disasters and conflicts.

Nigeria and climate change

Nigeria has been listed as a climate change hot spot.  According to scientific projections, the country is likely to experience major changes in weatherpatterns in the 21st Century.

It has been reported that rainfall patterns in the country have changed significantly in the past 40 years, with most areas now witnessing late onset of rains in contrast to the past when just few areas had such experienced such. Early cessation of rains, hitherto common in the southwestern part of the country seems to have become the norm across the country. Thus, the length of the wet season across the country has generally reduced.

There is also the threat of sea level rise and desertification. At the moment, over 800 kilometres of the country’s coastline is threatened by sea level rise and increasing risk of storm surge. Just this week, over 100 people have died and at least 30,000 displaced in floods after the country’s two major rivers burst their banks.

The National Emergency Management Agency(Nema) said “heavy rains caused the Niger River and Benue River to overflow”. This is just as concerns are mounting over desert encroachment in the northern part of the country.

Nigeria’s rapid population growth increases the country’s vulnerability to climate change as well. With the population demand outstripping infrastructure and service capacity, resilience to the impact of climate will be further weakened. Consequently, there will be social and public health crises which will lower the quality of life.

It is thus important that Nigeria takes the threat of climate change serious and see it as an issue that must be addressed urgently.

The Nigerian media and climate change

Increasing communication with a view to building public awareness is one of the ways of addressing climate change. It is important for the Nigerian public to understand the threat climate change poses to humanity both in the short and long term.  

Because of its seemingly abstract nature, the public usually finds it difficult to understand the issues involved in climate change. However, given the pivotal role the media plays in the construction of reality, creative media reportage can make climate change resonate with the public.

At the moment, the Nigerian media appears to pay little attention to climate change. Several studies have reported thelow volume of coverage the media gives to climate change. The few times the issue appears in the news, it is marginalised— tucked away in the inside pages or mentioned in passing during news bulletins in radio and television.

Given the revenue crunch facing the news media across the world-as a result of the implosion of its traditional business model-, it is 

Image from Climate Now

understandable that the Nigerian media will focus on issues that will increase its audience and ultimately bring more revenue. Ironically, however, the media will also be affected by the devastating effects of climate change.

By paying more attention to climate change, the Nigerian media will be helping to enhance public knowledge and understanding of climate change. Information, as the saying goes, is power. A climate change-informed society is a resilient society. With Nigeria identified as a climate change hotspot, the country’s media will need a resilient society to remain in business.