The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Chief of Kano Field Office, Rahama Farah has said that Nigeria accounted for 10 per cent of 1 billion children affected by climate change worldwide.
Farah disclosed this during a dialogue organised between school children and Kano policymakers to commemorate the 2023 World Children’s Day with the theme “Impact of Climate Change on the Lives of Children”.
According to him, “Worried by vulnerability of the children to climate change issues, the fund has developed an action plan from 2023 to 2027 to integrate climate change in all projects it is implementing across all sectors to ensure resilience to climate change.
He stated; “Children are vulnerable. Around the world, according to current statistics, there are about one billion (1 billion) children who are affected by climate change in countries which are vulnerable to climate change.”
He therefore disclosed that ” So in Nigeria, we have huge number of those children which amounts to about 10 per cent of the total who are vulnerable and affected in Nigeria”
“The way out is to be aware of the size of the problem, the scope of the problem and to develop an action plan to systematically address the issue of climate change.
And, in fact, UNICEF has recently in 2023 developed a framework and action plan from 2023 to 2027 which incorporates a lot of actions that we need to take jointly with government, stakeholders (private sectors, community and religious leaders) to address and mitigate the problem.
Farah then added; “The action plan is the designing of a conscious action and step organized to address certain issues of climate change in Nigeria. We make sure we integrate climate change in whatever we project we implement as UNICEF to ensure resilience to climate change,”
Speaking on the occasion, the Kano State Commissioner of Environment, Nasiru Sule Garo said the state is sensitizing the children on the dangers of climate change and to contribute their part to reduce the impact of climate change.
He further added that “it is sensitizing the children on the role they can play to discourage their peers and others from the practice of open defecation just as it ensures that public toilets are built in strategic locations to address practice of open defecation and towards an attaining an open defecation free status.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman, Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Yusuf Kabir disclosed that the state government has in the 2024 budget allocated N95 billion and the lion’s share to the education sector which is the first of its kind in history of the state to boost the sector.
Making the call on behalf of Alhaji Kabir, the Acting Board Secretary, Amina Umar, said the state is also working assiduously by constructing classrooms towards decongesting the population in the classrooms of the state to at least 1:60 ratio as 1:40 ratio is not feasible.
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