Climate Change: Developing Countries Push for $400bn Compensation

As the build-up to the global summit on climate change in Denmark gathers momentum countries of the developing world have asked the industrialized nations to cough-out $400bn as financial reparation for the economic and social losses brought upon them as a result of many years of carbon emission into the atmosphere.

The demand by developing countries which formed the main plank of their articulated positions for the world conference on Climate Change coming up in December, came on the heels of the decision of Africa to forge a common front at the summit with Ethiopia and Nigeria playing a leading role in presenting the continent’s position.
One of the discussants at yesterday’s inter-ministerial committee’s meeting held in Abuja and the Director of Finance in the Climate Change Unit of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr. Peter Tarfa, said as part of the effort to attract the required level of funding for adaptation programmes, developing countries were making a proposal to developed countries to contribute between $200bn and $400bn yearly to support the poor nations.

“Developing Countries are seeking between $200bn and $400bn as compensation from industrialized nations to assist them in managing the effects of climate change which they believed were mostly brought about by the economic activities of these rich countries”, he said.
Tarfa also said Nigeria faces a looming threat of economic losses up to about $100m annually as a result of the debilitating impact of desertification, deforestation, flooding, erosion and coastal sea rise if nothing is done to improve our adaptation capacity.

He said the developing countries are also asking for a new financial architecture which can enable them access donor funds easily without any hinderance or technicalities.

Tarfa who presented a paper on the nature of financial bail-out that countries of the developing world are making demand for, said African, countries are insisting that they would no longer subscribe to the idea of using loans to manage the damaging impact of climate change.
According to him global agreement that would take care of funding for such areas as in adaptation, technology and capacity-building is what developing countries were pushing for.
The Minister of Environment, John Odey, in his speech warned that Climate Change will drastically impact every facet of life in Nigeria as it aggravates.

According to him “although the impacts of Climate Change are going to be global, reports have shown that Nigeria and the continent of Africa will be worse hit. This is in spite of the fact that Africa contributes least to the emissions responsible for Climate Change.”
“The most important and globally accepted agreement to address climate change is the Kyoto Protocol. The processes leading to the Protocol commenced in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro when leaders of the industrialized nations met at a UN Climate Convention and agreed to stabilize their greenhouse gas emission concentration at a level that will not be inimical to the Climate System.

“However, the Protocol has virtually failed to address the purpose for which it was signed. Since signing of the Protocol by over 184 countries, the green house gas emission situation has taken a turn for the worse as the industrialized nations have not been able to tame their emission level. The Protocol will span out in the year 2012 and the negotiations of the successor of the Protocol are due to be finalized in Copenhagen in December, this year.

“In preparation of our negotiation position towards Copenhagen , the ministry has taken cue from Mr President’s declaration that even though we are not one of the countries responsible for the emissions, we are prepared to be part of the efforts to arrest the effects.
“Nigeria’s position, which was put together by this Committee in June this year, is very much in line with Common African Position following the resolutions at the African Union Summit in 2008 that in preparations towards Copenhagen Conference, African nations should build a common African Position.

“This position has taken special recognition of the fact that being an oil producing nation, our country seeks to benefit from funds that could be deployed for adaptation and mitigation measures as well as for the development of alternative sources of energy under the Clean Development Mechanism.

“For us in Nigeria , the up coming Conference in December is very crucial to our Development Agenda and our National Vision.
“Climate change scenarios for Nigeria indicate that the climatic variability currently being experienced is likely to increase and
intensify. Droughts, floods and storms are likely to increase in both frequency and intensity. Changes in precipitation levels and patterns are also likely to occur thus having an impact on agriculture and food production.

“In coastal areas, sea level rise and rising sea temperatures will threaten coastal areas and fishing activities in the southern region. The prospective impacts on our society and the economy are huge and cross-cutting.”

“In our efforts to promote low carbon economy in Nigeria , we have successfully increased the number of registered Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Nigeria from one to three in the last one year. The first was the Kwale Gas Utilization Projects while the second and the third projects are the Pan Ocean Gas Utilization Project and the Save 80 Fuel Efficient Wood Stove respectively.

“This achievement is first of its kind in Africa and it has placed Nigeria ahead of every other African nation in the number of Certified Emission Reduction (CER) units. The projects would go a long way in reducing problems of deforestation and accompanying land degradation across the country. This achievement will also significantly compliment the objectives of Mr. President’s nation-wide Afforestation Program.
“In order to build on this success however, Nigeria should seize the opportunity of the Copenhagen Conference to urgently exert its political muscle in and out of the continent to insist not only that Africa must be compensated for the impacts of climate change and opportunity lost”, he said..

The Head of Climate Change Unit in the Ministry, Dr. Victor Fodake said Africa has resolved that it will neither accept replacement of Kyoto Protocol nor its merger with any new agreement.
“Developed Countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050, in order to achieve the lowest level of stabilisation assessed by the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report”, he said.
He said at the last meeting of the African countries aimed fashioning a common front ahead of the conference in Denmark, the countries agreed that Ethiopia and Nigeria should play a leading role in driving the continent’s position at the summit.

Yesterday’s meeting was attended by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Aviation, Minister of State for Agriculture, Minister of Special Duties, Minister of Foreigns Affairs amongs others.

EFCC grills bank debtors at secret location in Lagos

Operatives quizz BankPHB, ETB, Spring Bank chiefs

Contrary to expectation, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday met with some bank debtors at a secret location in Lagos.

The meeting, which was billed for the EFCC Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos office, was moved to the secret location following the debtors’ plea, sources told The Nation.

The debtors, among whom are frontline politicians and eminent industrialists, pleaded for the change in venue to avoid what they called the "prying eyes" of the media.

Besides the debtors, the EFCC operatives quizzed the Financial Controllers and Company Secretaries of Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) yesterday.

It was learnt that upon the receipt of the letters of invitation, the debtors pleaded with EFCC Chairman Mrs. Farida Waziri to protect them from the media.

A source said: "These highly-placed debtors said the coverage of their presence in EFCC’s office by the media was affecting their image and causing them depression.

"They pleaded that they be allowed to appear before the commission in Abuja instead of Lagos. The debtors sought the protection of their privacy.

"But due to logistics, the EFCC insisted that it would meet with them in Lagos but with a change of tactics.

"That was why we moved our operatives to a secret location, in line with the request of the debtors."

The source added: "We took this step because the list of the debtors is already known to the public. We are really not trying to censor the press."

On the outcome of the interaction with the debtors, the source added: "Some of them came to reconcile their accounts. They also made commitments to offset their debts.

"Some of the debtors could not make it. They contacted the commission and rescheduled their visit.

"I think they are scared of the presence of the media because of a likely backlash on their reputation and business."

The source said it was too early to give any debt recovery figure.

The Financial Controllers and Company Secretaries of Bank PHB, Spring Bank and ETB were quizzed at the EFCC Ikoyi office.

Another source said: "We grilled these officials on alleged insider abuse; board decisions; and strange payments made by the banks.

"So, their invitation was part of the probe of the three banks by the EFCC. Some of the Managing Directors arrested have opened up on some decisions taken by their banks. We need to crosscheck relevant documents."

EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said: "Yes, we interacted with some of the debtors. They promised to repay their loans."

On the bank officials interrogated, Babafemi said: "It is part of the ongoing investigation in the banks."

Reporters and photographer besieged the EFCC office early yesterday in anticipation of the debtors’ visit.

They arrived as early as 8a.m. and waited until late in the day when they learnt that the debtors would not be coming.

EFCC spokesman in Lagos, Wilson Uwuigiaren, who confirmed the secret meeting, said some of the debtors pledged to repay part of their debts today.

He said others were being expected today as there is no "definite deadline" for payment.

He, however, failed to give the names and number of the debtors.

"We’ve decided to withhold their names with the belief that they will honour their words to begin to repay their debts as from today. Those who did not show up today (yesterday) will do so tomorrow (today)"

Sacked Managing Director of BankPHB Mr. Francis Atuche has applied to the EFCC to grant him bail or charge him to court rather than detaining him perpetually.

Atuche was arrested by the commission’s operatives last Friday and has since been in custody.

In an application for administrative bail delivered to the commission yesterday by one of his lawyers, Dr. Nnamdi Dimgba, Atuche said his continued detention was against constitutional provision.

The application jointly written by three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) – Chief Antony Idigbe, Rickey Tarfa and Chief Adeniyi Akintola – reads:

"We wish to draw your attention to the fact that under our constitution, except in very limited circumstances, which do not apply in this case, no person should be detained for more than 48 hours without either being released on bail or arraigned in a lawful court.

"We note that our client has been in your custody for a period longer than the above. We are therefore humbly applying that you kindly release him on bail pending such a time that you are ready to prefer charges against him, if any.

"We further apply that he be released on his self recognisance or upon any other reasonable and practicable condition that you may in your discretion prescribe."

A customer of Springbank named as debtor by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Arcturus Merchant Trust Limited, said it had repaid what it owed the bank prior to the CBN intervention.

Its lawyer, Mr Erasmus Baderinwa, said yesterday that the debt was repaid in line with the terms of settlement executed by both parties on May 16, 2008, and endorsed by a Lagos State High Court.

Baderinwa exhibited a copy of the terms of settlement and a letter by Springbank dated June 18, 2008, addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Panti, Lagos, acknowledging the settlement of the said debt.

The firm said it had not borrowed any other money since then from the bank, adding that the inclusion of its name on the CBN’s list must have been a mistake.

Return of the evil genius

There are widespread speculations that former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida has his eyes on Aso Rock come 2011 elections. In this report, Deputy Editor Adewale Adeoye examines the chances of the former leader who once ruled the country for eight controversial years

Can former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida rule Nigeria again.? Probably the answer should be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In the eyes of the Nigerian law, nothing debars him. But in the court of public opinion, scores of thorns lay his path. This will however depend on what public you belong to, especially in a country where truth has many colours flavoured with ethnicity, individualism, ego and faith. ‘If he contests the next election, we shall mobilize both home and global opinion against him’ the National Publicity Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, Mr Popoola Ajayi told The Nation.

Recently, Babangida was reported as saying he was ‘still consulting’ as regards 2011 presidential race. Many who have mastered his well known tradition of intrigues are reading meanings to his latest statement. Some see Babangida as a politician who acts like a typical lady in a love tango who would never say "yes" or "no" to a love proposal. When she says ‘No’ she means ‘maybe’ and when she says ‘maybe’ she actually means "Yes I do’. So recently when Babangida reportedly said he was still consulting on the 2011 presidential race, those conversant with his political tradition are anxious to conclude that the former dictator, who ran the country for close to a decade, under his iron fists, actually meant ‘yes, I wlll contest the election.’

In the past, observers say Babangida had said things he would later deny, and had denied things he would later say.

Some analysts think at 69, if his official age is real, the 2011 election seems his best and possibly last chance to seek control of the Nigerian state again. But will he contest the race? If he does, can he breast the tape? The pendulum that swings to his side is the fact that given the current geo-political equation, what seems to have almost become an unwritten constitution among all the political parties is the fact that the North should produce the president in 2011.

Babangida is from the North. But there is a clause, a very significant one. The slot of the north should terminate in 2015 when the baton is expected to go to the South, meaning that the North’s candidate, even if Babangida is one of them, will only have a maximum of four years, yet Babangida has no reputation for handing over whatever he holds so easily without sometimes a messy, if not bloody fight. Again, there are strong indications that President Umaru Yar’Adua, despite unconfirmed reports of his ill health, said to be occasioned by kidney related ailments, is anxious to seek re-election come 2011. Already, a contact committee has been put in place led by some Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftains a like Tony Anenih, Iwuanyanwu and many others, are part of the new machinery. Analysts think Babangida’s arithmetic ignores this reality to his own peril. ‘Babangida will come out to contest the 2011 election. He is already oiling his political machinery’, one reliable source hinted The Nation. The source told how Babangida held a ‘political dinner’ with his associates recently in Minna, the Niger-State capital. The source claimed that many former military administrators who served under his government (1985-1993) were gathered. ‘Though Babangida did not expressly disclose his intention, but the attendants participants at the meeting knew his intension was to rule the country again,’ the source claimed.

Other factors might make the race a virgin contest among contending, sometimes mutually inclusive Northern interests. For instance, The Nation gathered that Northern leaders are worried about the floundering fortunes of the Nigerian state, the mounting threats to unity of the country, which the north desperately deserves for obvious economic reasons, and under President Yar’Adua’s, government and the fact that a new person from the North in 2011 will make it easier for the North to toy with elongated rule through the backdoor. ‘The North has never been so vulnerable, would wish Yar’Adua to continue in office, but we are concerned there is the need for a stronger personality to stir the affairs of the state,’ one top PDP member told The Nation saying that the current leadership has failed woefully to manage the seething religious, ethnic and political crisis that continue to threaten the already fragile foundation of the country.

The source said the core-North is worried that if Yar’Adua gets a second chance and midway he fails to push ahead, given possible natural factors, the Vice-President, a Southerner would emerge and that would offer an elongated tenure to the South through the 2015 election. The source said there are concerns about ‘the health of the President.’ There is the thinking among a section in the north The Nation heard last Wednesday that it is better for the zone to produce an alternative candidate in 2011. The source also hinted that such an alternative candidate will give a double edge advantage to the north, chief of which is the possible of such a fresh candidate spending eight years in power, providing an additional four-year term to the North. ‘There is the plan to pick another presidential candidate from the North with a vice president from the Igbo East’ the source hinted.

One Babangida’s aide said the former military president is watching the political calculus for him to take adequate leap. On the other hand however, several factors seem to stand as obstacles to Babangidas possible game plan. Top on the list remains his eight year tyrannical rule which left the country reeling in anguish. He came into power in 1985, exploiting the euphoric anti-human, anti-media rights and the obvious plans to delink from Western dependency, under Gen Mohammadu Buhari, his predecessor. IBB came to power on August 27, 1985 in a bloodless coup which swept away his superiors. There were rumors that before he struck, the army authority had put a search light on his ‘nefarious’ activities and that he would have been retired from the army if not for the coup he staged. Initially, Babangida struck the nation as a liberalizing force when, at the budding state of his regime, he released political prisoners, abrogated the obnoxious anti-press Decree 4 of 1984. He also rose to meet initial admiration based on the self-initiated mystery of his ancestry, leaving many to guess he was Yoruba from Ogbomoso or was both Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani, two domineering ethic blocs in Nigeria. He was latter to denounce the speculation about his root when his government issued official statement that he hails from Bagawatse of the Sulubawa stock in Sokoto, affirming his Fulani ancestry, but that was years after he had stabilized his regime. He also initially selected a cabinet considered by many as fine apart from his populist programs like Directorate for Food, Road and Rural Infrasture DFRRI, Mass Mobilisation for Social and Economic Recovery MAMSER, National Directorate of Employment NDE and the Peoples Bank.

Later Babangida introduced what many considered the worst economic and political systems never witnessed before in the country’s troubled history. He was generally seen as a deceitful leader who mastered the pauperization of his people and ended up enriching himself and his rookies, Ayo Awosode, a strong member of the Nigerian Bar Association in Ibadan told The Nation.

An official of the Movement for the survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Mr. Patrick Nagbaton told our correspondent that Babangidas second coming ‘will spell doom for Nigeria’ saying that his regime set the tone for the emasculation of the Ogoni People and the entire people of the Niger-Delta.

Leader of the Supreme Egbesu Assembly SEA, Mr. Digifa Warinipre told The Nation that ‘I will be surprised to see any political party listing Babangida as it’s presidential candidate.’

IBB’s government sought and obtained loans from the International Monetary Fund, IMF after a well tailored public debate the conclusion of which he already drew, ab initio. The loan and the consequent introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP sent the nation’s economy tumbling down the cliff. Poverty, want, deprivation and hopelessness took the better part of the country. When Babangida came to power in 1985, the value of the naira was 1 to 5 dollars, by the time he left power, the value of the naira had depreciated to 1 to 80 dollars. Unemployment rose in geometric progression, manufacturers closed shops, the commanding height of the economy was privatised and sold to his cronies, millions lost their jobs and societal values pummeled to an all time low and the dignity once associated with the image of Nigeria home and abroad, ebbed.

His human rights records were horrendous.

For instance, despite global outrage, IBBs government took the lives of several senior military officers in 1986, including that of Gen Mamman Vasta who was his best man when he married Mariam. He accused Vatsa of planning to overthrow his government. In 1990, about 78 young soldiers linked to the April 22 1990 putsch were shot dead by his government. Many of those killed claimed innocent. The martial court usually had the defence lawyer and the judge provided by the military. His government deliberately launched an offensive against the university system, attacking ideological lecturers which he accused of revolutionizing the students movement. In one instance, his armed men pounced on Dr Patrick Wilmot who was sent out of the country from the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU. In another instance, his Secret Service agents pounced on Dr Festus Iyayi, then of the University of Benin. Iyayi’s household was thrown into the streets in broad day light.

IBB carried out similar attacks on students and the intelligentsia, a generation of which never completed their education up till today or were compelled to flee the country. Many continue to link the spate of violence and rise in cultism in Nigerian Universities to Babangida. One retired soldier who worked in the espionage department of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI told The Nation that Babangida armed several reactionary students on campus in his bid to emasculate the student movement, the result of which was the mushrooming of armed cult groups. The labour movement also faced direct onslaught from IBB. He did not only ban and unbanned the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, he also imposed administrative cronies.

Critics say under Babangida, corruption, naked abuse of power, opaque system of governance became almost elevated to the level of the directive principle of state policies. On IBB, Dr Timothy Othman of the Manitoba, California, US University wrote: ‘Despite the laudable policies and programs (of IBB), Nigeria went through catastrophic economic collapse. During the IBB era, official corruption expanded dramatically. The cancer consumed every government establishment at all levels impeding sincere execution of developmental projects.’

His iron fist rule was backed by draconian laws that held captive once a vibrant and prosperous nation. Though his supporters describe him as being liberal with everything including cash, but some think that such only epitomized the spendrift nature of his government and the share lack of decency in the utilization of public fund. His enemies insist IBB ruined every sector he believed was opposed to him including his own constituency, the "military": His government survive on the ruins of ethnic cleavages which he helped fuel.

Born in Minna, he had no higher civil education apart from his military training. He joined the army in 1970, at a time of the civil war when the force was largely propelled by the need to unite the country at all cost and not based on any compelling humanitarian ideology. His rise in the army, like many of his contemporaries has little link with any statesmanship achievements but rather propelled by his place of birth, the advantages and pecks associated with his being a potential crony of the Northern oligarchy and the usually noticeable membership of a wing of the military that seems committed to a blind determination to defend a significantly decadent status quo.

But there are those who think that the heinous economic and political harm committed by IBB’s successors, first by Gen Sanni Abacha, whose agents killed political opponents on the streets, hounded the nation to a state of coma, President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose soldiers sacked a whole Odi village, leaving sorrows, tears and blood, and even now with the recent onslaught on the Niger-Delta people, show that IBB’s failings are not extraordinary. ‘If the tunnel look irredeemably dark, then what is special in another blind leading the flock’ a clergy man who does not want to be named told The Nation on Wednesday. But Madam Kudirat Naibi who sells grocery in downtown Lagos took solace in the saying of the common man ‘IBB for president again,? Ha, for this country anything can happen. But, one day one day, monkey go go market, he no go come back.’ Her expression of hope is that one day, the circle of deceitful lordship and cruel manipulation of the Nigerian people may one day be brought to an end. But that remains a wish, a mere wish.