The Director-General of the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies ( NILDS), Abubakar Sulaiman, has called for the dredging of major rivers and dams in the country to avert adverse effects of flooding.

Mr Sulaiman made the call on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day validation retreat on the draft Model Climate Change Law for Africa in Abuja. The African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES) drafted the law.

He said while Nigeria continued to make progress in enhancing its climate change governance actions, closing infrastructure gaps, including dredging major rivers and dams, remained vital.

Mr Sulaiman said dredging would avert the ravaging impacts of floods and erosion that usually accompanied the country’s rainfall cycle.

“Whereas many stakeholders have recognised the need for dredging of major rivers and dams, the commitment of public funds in this direction has been poor.

“For instance, of the total of N14.85 trillion proposed for capital expenditure in the 2025 budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria, only 0.03 per cent is committed to projects aimed at dredging major rivers and dams.

“Dredging these waterways remains vital to mitigate the devastating impacts of floods in 2025 and beyond; hence, it should be given the necessary priority in the 2025 budget,” he said.

In his remarks, the AGNES team lead, George Wamukoya, said the effects of climate change were evident in African society.

According to him, Africa must put mechanisms in place to address the menace, stating that one of such mechanism is a legal framework.

Mr Wamukoya said the draft was put together by experts across sectors and added that adequate attention was given to administrative structure as well as the roles of citizens.

He said the draft framework aimed to enable African countries to have legal frameworks on climate change to enhance the continent’s negotiation at the global stage.

The team lead said the draft was for African countries, and they were free to domesticate the law as it suited individual countries.

Speaking at the occasion, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Director in Nigeria, Rose Mwebaza, said as long as the G-20 countries continued the current emissions, Africa would continue to suffer the effects of climate change.

Ms Mwebaza, however, said Africa could not afford to fold its hands without doing anything, stressing that the continent would remain weak at the negotiation table without domestic legal frameworks.

According to her, one of the reasons Africa did not have access to enough climate change finance is the lack of domestic framework, as only about four of the 54 countries in the continent have climate change laws.

She commended the initiative, saying it would be part of the topics for discussion at the Heads of State conference in February.

Walters Tubua, the regional lead for West and Central Africa, United Nations Climate Change, said the adverse effects were visible on the continent.

Mr Tubua said Africans must roll up their sleeves and fight climate change, as the last 10 years had been the hottest.

(NAN)