As the world prepares to converge in Copenhagen, Denmark in December with the hope of arriving at a globally accepted agreement to reduce the impact of climate change on the world, there is a strong feeling that developing countries are in for a shocker.
Developed countries have declared by their actions and comments that there will be no deal protecting the interest of developing countries already bearing the brunt of climate change.
Rather than adhere to agreed positions in Bali in 2007, the developed countries are introducing new rules and insisting that those suffering the impact of climate change take up responsibilities aside poverty and other challenges they are already facing.
From all indication, the Kyoto protocol regarded today as the most binding global legal agreement that compelled developed countries to cut their greenhouse gas emission and the only hope for developing countries to get a fair deal from developed countries that caused the changing climate is heading for the rock.
The protocol provided for shared but differentiated responsibilities. Meaning that developed countries responsible for the changing climate must assist developing countries bearing the impact to adapt and mitigate the effect through the provision of funds and technology transfer.
But this may not be after all.
Sensing the implication of the moves by the developed countries in the various build-ups meetings to the Copenhagen conference, Mr. Yvo D Boer, Executive Secretary, United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), appealed for caution and advised developed countries not to set aside the Kyoto protocol.
“You don’t throw away your old shoes simply because you are expecting a new one,” he told delegates at the recent Bangkok climate talks.
The advice came on the heels of concerted efforts by the developed countries especially the United State of America, the world leading emitter who refused to sign the Kyoto protocol and the European Commission otherwise recognized as Annex 1 parties under the Kyoto Protocol to jettison the protocol in favor of new agreement.
But Nigeria Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey did not see any need for a new agreement saying that ``the Kyoto protocol is the most important and globally accepted agreement to address climate change.’’
The processes that resulted in 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.
By 1997 the industrialized nations agreed under the Kyoto Protocol to take legally binding targets on Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 2012. Thus, the Protocol set a binding emission target for 37 industrialized nations.
However, the Protocol has virtually failed to address the purpose for which it was signed as developed countries failed to cut their emission as well as provide funds for developing countries to tackle the impact of climate change.
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.
As a result of the topical nature of the impacts of Climate Change, a 2009 deadline was given two years ago at UN Climate Convention in Bali to complete the negotiation of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The negotiations of the successor of the Protocol are due to be finalized in Copenhagen in December, this year.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, Africa and other developing countries were exempted from any legally binding mechanism while they are to press for Climate justice under the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Capabilities.
The Kyoto protocol despite being adjudged as one of the most important global agreements to save guard the climate was not accented to by the USA, the world leading emitter of greenhouse gases.
No wonder therefore when the USA led other developed block to the Bangkok Climate talks to demand for a new global binding, enforceable, target setting agreements that will spell out targets for both developed and developing countries.
Barely a month to the Copenhagen conference, where agreements on post Kyoto is to be reached, the developed countries have started changing pervious rules and agreements set in Bali.
This sudden departure from agreed position according to the G77+ China was a deliberate attempt by the developed countries to kill the Kyoto protocol.
The G77+ China, a leading block in the climate negotiations process representing the interest of developing countries said that the tricks by the developed countries was targeted at killing the Kyoto, their only platform to hold the developed countries accountable to the destruction they caused to the climate.
They insisted that the antics would be resisted.
Dr Victor Fodeke, Nigeria’s chief climate officer said that dropping the Kyoto would have a negative impact on ability of developing countries to tackle the menace of climate change.
He noted that the protocol protected the rights of developing countries in global efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change and therefore should not be thrown overboard.
“The Kyoto protocol is the only hope of the developing countries; it is the only legally binding instrument requiring developed countries to cut their emission, killing it is dashing the hope of developing countries,’’ Fodeke said.
Setting aside the Kyoto protocol because it is not enforceable is like removing traffic lights because it is not working, he added.
The Copenhagen conference therefore according to the G77+ China remained the avenue for the world to reach an agreeable premise on how to protect the interest of developing in cushioning the impact of climate change.
Inspite of the fears ahead of Copenhagen, developing countries are bent on securing a deal that would commit Annex 1 countries to contribute billions of dollars to them to cushion the threats of climate change.
(published by Dailytrust newspapers on Dec. 3, 2009)
Monday, December 7, 2009
The clock has tickled down to zero – Boer
As the world gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to begin deliberation on how best to address the challenges of climate change, Mr Yvo de Boer, executive Secretary, United Nation framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC) has warmed that the clock has tickled down to zero.
``The clock has tickled down to zero. After two years of negotiations, the time has come to deliver,’’ he told delegates at the opening of the 15th Conference of parties to the UNFCCC.
Boer said that the time to come up with an acceptable agreement that must have three layers has come.
``The bottom layer must consist of an agreement on prompt implementation of action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, REED and capacity building.
The second layer consists of ambitious emission reduction commitments and actions. It also include commitments on start-up finance in order of 10 billion US dollars per years as well as long term finance,
The third layer, or the icing on the cake consists of a shared vision on long term cooperative action on climate change and long-term goal,’’ Boer said.
He maintained that Copenhagen would only be a success if it delivered significant and immediate action.
``Developing countries desperately need tangible and immediate action on issues that would cushion the impact of climate change,’’ he added.
``The time for formal statement is over. The time for restating well-known position is past. The time has come to reach out to each other.’’
``The clock has tickled down to zero. After two years of negotiations, the time has come to deliver,’’ he told delegates at the opening of the 15th Conference of parties to the UNFCCC.
Boer said that the time to come up with an acceptable agreement that must have three layers has come.
``The bottom layer must consist of an agreement on prompt implementation of action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, REED and capacity building.
The second layer consists of ambitious emission reduction commitments and actions. It also include commitments on start-up finance in order of 10 billion US dollars per years as well as long term finance,
The third layer, or the icing on the cake consists of a shared vision on long term cooperative action on climate change and long-term goal,’’ Boer said.
He maintained that Copenhagen would only be a success if it delivered significant and immediate action.
``Developing countries desperately need tangible and immediate action on issues that would cushion the impact of climate change,’’ he added.
``The time for formal statement is over. The time for restating well-known position is past. The time has come to reach out to each other.’’
COP 15 opens with scientists debunking critics view on climate change
The 15th Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today (Dec. 7) in Copenhagen, Denmark with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change saying there existed overwhelming evidence that regions of the world are already suffering the impact of climate change.
IPCC Chair, Dr Rajendra Pachauri at the opening of the conference urged the world to neglect the recent email stealing incident at the University of East Anglia adding that it was targeted at discrediting the IPCC.
``The panel has a record of transparent and objective assessment stretching over 21 years performed by tens of thousands of dedicated scientists from all corners of the globe,’’ he said.
``Our assessment reports are based on measurements made by many independent institutions world wide that demonstrate significant changes on land, in the atmosphere, on the oceans and in the iced-covered areas of the earth.’’
Pachauri said that the global community has a moral and material responsibility to do all it can to limit the growing impacts of climate change on vulnerable societies and regions.
He noted that the absence of mitigation policies would result in possible disappearance of sea ice by the latter part of the 21st century, increase in frequency of hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation.
Other impacts brought about due to the absence of mitigation policies according to him include increase in tropical cyclone intensity, extinction of 20 to 30 per cent of species and exacerbation of current stress on water resources.
IPCC Chair, Dr Rajendra Pachauri at the opening of the conference urged the world to neglect the recent email stealing incident at the University of East Anglia adding that it was targeted at discrediting the IPCC.
``The panel has a record of transparent and objective assessment stretching over 21 years performed by tens of thousands of dedicated scientists from all corners of the globe,’’ he said.
``Our assessment reports are based on measurements made by many independent institutions world wide that demonstrate significant changes on land, in the atmosphere, on the oceans and in the iced-covered areas of the earth.’’
Pachauri said that the global community has a moral and material responsibility to do all it can to limit the growing impacts of climate change on vulnerable societies and regions.
He noted that the absence of mitigation policies would result in possible disappearance of sea ice by the latter part of the 21st century, increase in frequency of hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation.
Other impacts brought about due to the absence of mitigation policies according to him include increase in tropical cyclone intensity, extinction of 20 to 30 per cent of species and exacerbation of current stress on water resources.
Copenhagen climate change Conference,
Am in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 15th conference of parties to the UNFCCC and shall be reporting issues and events as there happen
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
African policymakers urged to speed seed to farmers
[ABUJA] African seed producers and researchers have called on policymakers to boost production of improved seed varieties and ensure that they are released to farmers more quickly.
At a policy workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria, stakeholders from industry and academia sought to unify the seed laws of different countries within West Africa to narrow the gap between supply and demand.
Recent studies by researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) show that current demand for improved varieties of maize seeds far exceeds supply in the region.
According to one study, the average supply of drought-tolerant, improved maize seeds in the region accounted for only one third of the total demand— with less than 50 per cent in Nigeria and only 11 per cent in Ghana — from 1997 to 2007.
Tahirou Abdoulaye, an IITA agricultural economist who led the study, said that maize seed production in the region is too low and called for a favourable policy framework to attract the private sector to the seed industry.
According to an IITA press release, maize productivity has been under threat from both climate change-related drought and delays in getting improved seed varieties to farmers.
Solving the latter problem requires a more effective, streamlined seed sector, said Wilfred Mwangi, associate director for Africa in CIMMYT's Global Maize Program.
Shehu Ado, director of the Institute of Agricultural Research at Nigeria's Ahmadu Bello University, told SciDev.Net that the gap between supply and demand was not a result of legal issues or bottlenecks in the system but of the inability of seed companies to showcase their products at the grassroots level.
He said that seed companies in the region rely heavily on the government for bulk purchases. The government, in turn, delivers these seeds to farmers, creating a gap between farmers and seed companies.
This gap has created problems of credibility and confidence, Ado said, with some farmers complaining that hybrid seeds do not perform better than freely available conventional varieties. He argued that seed companies must campaign to educate farmers on the benefits of improved hybrid varieties.
But Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, told SciDev.Net that narrowing the gap between supply and demand will not only keep farmers dependent on seed companies but could also weaken national laws that protect the environment, opening up the region to contamination and degradation.
Published by www.scidev.Net (Nov.23)
At a policy workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria, stakeholders from industry and academia sought to unify the seed laws of different countries within West Africa to narrow the gap between supply and demand.
Recent studies by researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) show that current demand for improved varieties of maize seeds far exceeds supply in the region.
According to one study, the average supply of drought-tolerant, improved maize seeds in the region accounted for only one third of the total demand— with less than 50 per cent in Nigeria and only 11 per cent in Ghana — from 1997 to 2007.
Tahirou Abdoulaye, an IITA agricultural economist who led the study, said that maize seed production in the region is too low and called for a favourable policy framework to attract the private sector to the seed industry.
According to an IITA press release, maize productivity has been under threat from both climate change-related drought and delays in getting improved seed varieties to farmers.
Solving the latter problem requires a more effective, streamlined seed sector, said Wilfred Mwangi, associate director for Africa in CIMMYT's Global Maize Program.
Shehu Ado, director of the Institute of Agricultural Research at Nigeria's Ahmadu Bello University, told SciDev.Net that the gap between supply and demand was not a result of legal issues or bottlenecks in the system but of the inability of seed companies to showcase their products at the grassroots level.
He said that seed companies in the region rely heavily on the government for bulk purchases. The government, in turn, delivers these seeds to farmers, creating a gap between farmers and seed companies.
This gap has created problems of credibility and confidence, Ado said, with some farmers complaining that hybrid seeds do not perform better than freely available conventional varieties. He argued that seed companies must campaign to educate farmers on the benefits of improved hybrid varieties.
But Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, told SciDev.Net that narrowing the gap between supply and demand will not only keep farmers dependent on seed companies but could also weaken national laws that protect the environment, opening up the region to contamination and degradation.
Published by www.scidev.Net (Nov.23)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Experts warn of dangers for west Africa
The potentials for disaster and humanitarian crisis along the coastal state of West Africa is increasingly stark, according to disaster management experts, and countries within the sub-region need to develop programmes to manage these.
Some of the experts, gathered recently in Abuja, under a Humanitarian Future Programme (HFP) of the ECOWAS Commission and the Kings College, London, also said the possibilities of humanitarian crisis is intensifying in distinctly different ways at local and regional levels.
They point at a recent discovery that Nigeria’s waterways was under threat. Marine scientists recently found leakages from an underground pipe carrying gas through the water channel at the Tin Can inland- Liverpool Bridge.
Tunde Agboola, a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Ibadan presented some crisis scenarios that may occur in West Africa in the nearest future if contingency plans are not developed against it.
One of such scenarios was the possibility of a gas fire along the West African coast where the pipelines for the West African Gas
Pipeline is currently laid.
According to Mr Agboola, an outbreak of such fire has the potentials of displacing million of inhabitants in about five member states, leading to mass movement of people within and outside the region.
Other issues that may led to a possible humanitarian crisis in the region, according to him, include: oil spillage, gas blow out, sea surge, sudden sea level rise, water pollution and salt water intrusion.
“In the next two decades virtually all West African coastal states (12 states) could emerge as commercial oil and gas producers,” he said. “While this could constitute a driver and catalyst for economic growth and development, such infrastructure will actually increase the sub-region’s vulnerability to some type of disaster.”
He was of the opinion that should any of the crisis occur, cities along the West African coast would submerge, all economic gains of the region would be lost, the region’s flora and fauna would also be lost and underground water would be polluted.
He was not the only one with dire predictions. Mary Mye-Kamara, Director, Disaster Management Department, Office of the National Security, Sierra Leone said the West African sub-region is prone to more disasters than was hitherto imagined.
Ms. Mye-Kamara cited the River Niger, which flows through five states in the region as another potential candidate for disaster, in view of the present use of the river.
“The region was prone to health pandemic as a result of constant dumping of both solid and liquid domestic waste and industrial toxic waste into the river”, she said, adding, “this would lead to the deterioration of water quality, ground water pollution - which might also arise from mining activities -deforestation and flooding transport sediments into water bodies”.
Then there is the fear of a decrease in water volume in the region, which the governments of Nigeria, Niger and Mali are constantly talking about. A major decrease could lead to conflicts over electricity generation and increase in toxicity caused by decreasing dilution.
“There will be loss of jobs and livelihood, loss of biodiversity, displacement of fishing communities and localisation of conflicts,’’ Mye-Kamara said.
Randolph Kent, the Kings College’s Director of Humanitarian Programme however warned that the west African sub-region lacked the capacity to cope with the envisaged calamities.
“The region’s humanitarian sector faces difficulties in anticipating and responding adequately to emerging crisis,” he said. “This is due, in part, to the ways in which many organisations within the sector thinks.
“Population growth, mass migration, global warming, natural resource scarcity, toxic waste, social inequality and outmoded institutions are just some of the stark trends and factors that humankind must face; but, here in West Africa, confronting these is still a challenge”, he said.
He cautioned that the strategic capabilities of most organisations within the sub-region were uneven and that their focus is generally narrow and short-term.
An official of the ECOWAS Commission confessed as much. Mohammed Ibrahim, the Principal Programme Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction at the Commission said the region was at the cross road regarding how to prevent what could be one of the greatest humanitarian crisis of this century.
Mr. Ibrahim said that all the scenarios presented by scientists on the possibility of a possible disaster have started manifesting, as the sea current now was stronger than it uses to be.
He, however, said the Commission has the requisite organs to articulate viable options and strategies to mitigate the possible disasters.
Mr. Agboola, however, said the sub-region has to rely on indigenous knowledge to overcome any disaster. But the experts all agreed on one thing: the creation of a platform that would bring policy makers and scientists in the region together to find solutions to the envisaged crisis.
Some of the experts, gathered recently in Abuja, under a Humanitarian Future Programme (HFP) of the ECOWAS Commission and the Kings College, London, also said the possibilities of humanitarian crisis is intensifying in distinctly different ways at local and regional levels.
They point at a recent discovery that Nigeria’s waterways was under threat. Marine scientists recently found leakages from an underground pipe carrying gas through the water channel at the Tin Can inland- Liverpool Bridge.
Tunde Agboola, a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Ibadan presented some crisis scenarios that may occur in West Africa in the nearest future if contingency plans are not developed against it.
One of such scenarios was the possibility of a gas fire along the West African coast where the pipelines for the West African Gas
Pipeline is currently laid.
According to Mr Agboola, an outbreak of such fire has the potentials of displacing million of inhabitants in about five member states, leading to mass movement of people within and outside the region.
Other issues that may led to a possible humanitarian crisis in the region, according to him, include: oil spillage, gas blow out, sea surge, sudden sea level rise, water pollution and salt water intrusion.
“In the next two decades virtually all West African coastal states (12 states) could emerge as commercial oil and gas producers,” he said. “While this could constitute a driver and catalyst for economic growth and development, such infrastructure will actually increase the sub-region’s vulnerability to some type of disaster.”
He was of the opinion that should any of the crisis occur, cities along the West African coast would submerge, all economic gains of the region would be lost, the region’s flora and fauna would also be lost and underground water would be polluted.
He was not the only one with dire predictions. Mary Mye-Kamara, Director, Disaster Management Department, Office of the National Security, Sierra Leone said the West African sub-region is prone to more disasters than was hitherto imagined.
Ms. Mye-Kamara cited the River Niger, which flows through five states in the region as another potential candidate for disaster, in view of the present use of the river.
“The region was prone to health pandemic as a result of constant dumping of both solid and liquid domestic waste and industrial toxic waste into the river”, she said, adding, “this would lead to the deterioration of water quality, ground water pollution - which might also arise from mining activities -deforestation and flooding transport sediments into water bodies”.
Then there is the fear of a decrease in water volume in the region, which the governments of Nigeria, Niger and Mali are constantly talking about. A major decrease could lead to conflicts over electricity generation and increase in toxicity caused by decreasing dilution.
“There will be loss of jobs and livelihood, loss of biodiversity, displacement of fishing communities and localisation of conflicts,’’ Mye-Kamara said.
Randolph Kent, the Kings College’s Director of Humanitarian Programme however warned that the west African sub-region lacked the capacity to cope with the envisaged calamities.
“The region’s humanitarian sector faces difficulties in anticipating and responding adequately to emerging crisis,” he said. “This is due, in part, to the ways in which many organisations within the sector thinks.
“Population growth, mass migration, global warming, natural resource scarcity, toxic waste, social inequality and outmoded institutions are just some of the stark trends and factors that humankind must face; but, here in West Africa, confronting these is still a challenge”, he said.
He cautioned that the strategic capabilities of most organisations within the sub-region were uneven and that their focus is generally narrow and short-term.
An official of the ECOWAS Commission confessed as much. Mohammed Ibrahim, the Principal Programme Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction at the Commission said the region was at the cross road regarding how to prevent what could be one of the greatest humanitarian crisis of this century.
Mr. Ibrahim said that all the scenarios presented by scientists on the possibility of a possible disaster have started manifesting, as the sea current now was stronger than it uses to be.
He, however, said the Commission has the requisite organs to articulate viable options and strategies to mitigate the possible disasters.
Mr. Agboola, however, said the sub-region has to rely on indigenous knowledge to overcome any disaster. But the experts all agreed on one thing: the creation of a platform that would bring policy makers and scientists in the region together to find solutions to the envisaged crisis.
Nigeria’s plants provide cures for global diseases
Nigeria's reputation as a global centre for drug discovery has received another boost with the announcement of a research utilising tea leaves and fruit from the wild, which is showing positive results against type-2 diabetes.
The research, conducted at the University of Copenhagen and published in Alphagalileo, said the researchers at the University harvested the ingredients for the tea, totalling approximately fifty kilos of leaves and three hundred kilos of fruits, from the wild in Nigeria.
As scientists and researchers direct their attention to natural products to combat the growing global disease burden, they are discovering the wealth within Nigeria-the country with the largest moist equatorial forest and plant endemism in Africa.
Of 150,000 plant species or higher plants estimated to be present in tropical countries, about 30,000 are found in Africa. Nigeria accounts for three quarter of the African estimate.
Currently, tea leaves and other fruits from Nigeria's wild are undergoing various investigations in laboratories across the world in an attempt to find solution to some of the diseases that have ravaged humanity.
The University of Copenhagen treated the tea exactly as local healers would do: boil the leaves, young stalks and fruit and filter the liquid.
The researchers, including a Nigerian, Joan Campbell-Toftel, tested the tea on genetically diabetic mice. The results of the tests, according to the scientists, shows that six weeks of daily treatment with the African tea, combined with a low-fat diet, resulted in changes in the combination and amount of fat in the animals' eyes and protection of the fragile pancreas of the mice.
The researchers have also recently completed a four-month clinical test on 23 patients with type-2 diabetes and expressed satisfaction with the result.
The research subjects drank 750ml of tea each day. The cure appears to differentiate itself from other current type-2 diabetes treatments because the tea does not initially affect the sugar content of the blood," said Mr. Campbell-Tofte. "But after four months of treatment with tea, we can, however, see a significant increase in glucose tolerance."
From sickle cell to HIV
In 2004, some leaves from Nigeria had, against all odds, brought relief to sickle cell sufferers across the globe when researchers at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), banking on indigenous knowledge of the use of herbs, produced NIPRISAN, a potent drug for the management of sickle cell.
The drug was acknowledged by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, at a ceremony to mark its formal launch, in 2007, as the only potent treatment of sickle cell globally. The achievement was picked up by an American company, Xechem International Pharmaceutical Company, which bought the right from the Nigerian government to mass produce and market the drug now known as NICOSAN.
The license granted the company by government was withdrawn in March 2009, following the inability of the company to meet conditions contained in the agreement regarding the availability and affordability of the drug.
Currently, NIPRD and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA, are collaborating on a research using Nigerian leaves, which is showing good signs in the treatment of Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
"US and Nigerian scientists at NIPRD are currently engaged in a joint research activity to test the efficacy of remedies for tuberculosis used by traditional healers in Nigeria. It is our hope that this collaboration continues and results in better therapeutic products," US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, said recently.
At the Institute for Advanced Medical Research Training, University of Ibadan, research has advanced on a discovery capable of reducing the global malaria mortality, which currently accounts for over two million deaths annually.
Edith Ajaiyeoba of the Department of Pharmcognosy at the University of Ibadan said the prospect of new drugs coming out of Nigeria's wild was brighter now than ever, in view of collaboration with other international research laboratories.
William Folk, principal investigator at the International Centre for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia, said he was optimistic that the possibility of developing a natural based drug for HIV/AIDS from the wild of Africa was high.
"In West Africa, there are well documented uses of indigenous plant spices used to treat malaria, diarrhoea, fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis, oral candidiasis, herpes and other STI infections," he said.
Muhammed Gwarzo of Bayero University, Kano. Mr. Gwarzo said Nigerian herbs administered by traditional healers to HIV-infected individuals has shown that the herbals, if properly evaluated, would provide a cure to the dreaded virus.
An anti-tuberculosis drug research conducted at NIPRD, by Nneka Ibekwe and others, also showed that of the 86 plants-based recipes used by Nigerian traditional medicine practitioners for the treatment of tuberculosis, about 60 percent were active from weak to high degrees.
Inyang Uford, Director General of NIPRD, said the institute was in the vanguard of investigating plant species based on ethnomedical information. "The potentials and efficacy of Nigeria's leaves is no longer in doubt but how the country prepares itself to spearhead and encourage research into the wild to ensure it benefits from the global multi-billion dollar drug industry is what is at stake," he said.
The research, conducted at the University of Copenhagen and published in Alphagalileo, said the researchers at the University harvested the ingredients for the tea, totalling approximately fifty kilos of leaves and three hundred kilos of fruits, from the wild in Nigeria.
As scientists and researchers direct their attention to natural products to combat the growing global disease burden, they are discovering the wealth within Nigeria-the country with the largest moist equatorial forest and plant endemism in Africa.
Of 150,000 plant species or higher plants estimated to be present in tropical countries, about 30,000 are found in Africa. Nigeria accounts for three quarter of the African estimate.
Currently, tea leaves and other fruits from Nigeria's wild are undergoing various investigations in laboratories across the world in an attempt to find solution to some of the diseases that have ravaged humanity.
The University of Copenhagen treated the tea exactly as local healers would do: boil the leaves, young stalks and fruit and filter the liquid.
The researchers, including a Nigerian, Joan Campbell-Toftel, tested the tea on genetically diabetic mice. The results of the tests, according to the scientists, shows that six weeks of daily treatment with the African tea, combined with a low-fat diet, resulted in changes in the combination and amount of fat in the animals' eyes and protection of the fragile pancreas of the mice.
The researchers have also recently completed a four-month clinical test on 23 patients with type-2 diabetes and expressed satisfaction with the result.
The research subjects drank 750ml of tea each day. The cure appears to differentiate itself from other current type-2 diabetes treatments because the tea does not initially affect the sugar content of the blood," said Mr. Campbell-Tofte. "But after four months of treatment with tea, we can, however, see a significant increase in glucose tolerance."
From sickle cell to HIV
In 2004, some leaves from Nigeria had, against all odds, brought relief to sickle cell sufferers across the globe when researchers at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), banking on indigenous knowledge of the use of herbs, produced NIPRISAN, a potent drug for the management of sickle cell.
The drug was acknowledged by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, at a ceremony to mark its formal launch, in 2007, as the only potent treatment of sickle cell globally. The achievement was picked up by an American company, Xechem International Pharmaceutical Company, which bought the right from the Nigerian government to mass produce and market the drug now known as NICOSAN.
The license granted the company by government was withdrawn in March 2009, following the inability of the company to meet conditions contained in the agreement regarding the availability and affordability of the drug.
Currently, NIPRD and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA, are collaborating on a research using Nigerian leaves, which is showing good signs in the treatment of Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
"US and Nigerian scientists at NIPRD are currently engaged in a joint research activity to test the efficacy of remedies for tuberculosis used by traditional healers in Nigeria. It is our hope that this collaboration continues and results in better therapeutic products," US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, said recently.
At the Institute for Advanced Medical Research Training, University of Ibadan, research has advanced on a discovery capable of reducing the global malaria mortality, which currently accounts for over two million deaths annually.
Edith Ajaiyeoba of the Department of Pharmcognosy at the University of Ibadan said the prospect of new drugs coming out of Nigeria's wild was brighter now than ever, in view of collaboration with other international research laboratories.
William Folk, principal investigator at the International Centre for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia, said he was optimistic that the possibility of developing a natural based drug for HIV/AIDS from the wild of Africa was high.
"In West Africa, there are well documented uses of indigenous plant spices used to treat malaria, diarrhoea, fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis, oral candidiasis, herpes and other STI infections," he said.
Muhammed Gwarzo of Bayero University, Kano. Mr. Gwarzo said Nigerian herbs administered by traditional healers to HIV-infected individuals has shown that the herbals, if properly evaluated, would provide a cure to the dreaded virus.
An anti-tuberculosis drug research conducted at NIPRD, by Nneka Ibekwe and others, also showed that of the 86 plants-based recipes used by Nigerian traditional medicine practitioners for the treatment of tuberculosis, about 60 percent were active from weak to high degrees.
Inyang Uford, Director General of NIPRD, said the institute was in the vanguard of investigating plant species based on ethnomedical information. "The potentials and efficacy of Nigeria's leaves is no longer in doubt but how the country prepares itself to spearhead and encourage research into the wild to ensure it benefits from the global multi-billion dollar drug industry is what is at stake," he said.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Nigeria's fast disappearing trees
Nigerians are presently using more firewood as fuel than at any other time in the nation’s entire history, a recently concluded study conducted by Abdulmalik Nura, a scientific officer with the Raw Materials Research and Development Council has shown.
The study, conducted in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, revealed that more people are earning their livelihood from firewood trading; while local fabricators are making brisk business designing cold-pot and other types of stoves that uses firewood and charcoal for fuel.
The study, which collected data from 360 firewood collectors, sellers, buyers and users, said that the estimated demand for firewood in each household in Bauchi State alone is 5,521 metric tonnes per month.
“This,” Mr. Nura said, “is akin to burning 27,607 metric tonnes of carbon per month.”
Perhaps things would not have been so bad had Nigeria been committed to its tree planting obligations.
During the 2006 conference of parties to the Kyoto protocol in Nairobi, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to announce an ambitious initiative of planting one billion trees as one of the strategies of mitigating the impacts of climate change.
The initiative, headed by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai, was supported by United Nations Environment Programme, Prince of Monaco and a host of other international organizations. It seeks to commit governments, organizations and individuals to plant trees in their various locations.
The target has since been reviewed; and a higher ambition of seven billion trees set after studies showed that the initial target of one billion was surpassed. All this was done without any help from Nigeria.
Though Nigeria instituted a tree planting campaign in the 1990s, the project has been turned into an annual ritual where government officials corruptly enrich themselves in the name of planting trees.
The ceremony has also become a political gathering where local government chairmen, governors, and their wives plant trees amidst much pageantry, without reflecting on what became of the trees planted the previous years.
For instance, at Ogbadigbo Local Government Area of Benue State, north central Nigeria, a specific park within the local government secretariat is used yearly for the exercise. But no one appeared concerned that trees planted the previous year were no longer blooming.
Nigeria is among the laggards in a global survey of numbers of trees planted by countries.
Yet, the current usage level of firewood in Nigeria suggests that rather than plant them, Nigerians are felling more trees.
Inaccessible energy sources
An expert said the demand for wood fuel is on the increase due to the inability of a majority of Nigerians to afford other means of energy for their daily cooking.
Salisu Suleiman of the Ahamdu Bello University said that government needed to articulate a comprehensive plan for tree planting campaign and stop paying lip service to the exercise.
“If wood fuel is used in urban areas like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan, then one can only imagine the situation in rural areas,” Suleiman said. “Wood fuel is cheaper than kerosene and as long as that remained the case, trees will continue to be chopped down for firewood.”
Mr. Suleiman said that a major reason for the depletion of the Nigerian forest was the fact the firewood and charcoal still constituted the major cooking fuel in many homes.
In Jos, North Central Nigeria, firewood business, according to Jane Pam, is a money-spinning business that had served as a source of livelihood for thousands of women in the city.
Mrs. Pam said those who patronize the traders include bakers, households, and restaurants; including women involved in the frying of bean and flour cakes.
Another trader in the firewood business, Adamu Mohammed, said most of their supplies come from the hinterland.
The Hose and Zaramaganda suburbs of Jos are famous centres for firewood traders. Heaps of firewood litter the area, with women making brisk business. Trucks daily bring in new supplies; while others fan out to distribute firewood to customers within the metropolis.
Madam Jumai, a firewood dealer in Hose, claimed to have used proceeds from her trade to train all her four children up to university level.
Blame the states
The Director of Forestry at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Lawrence Ogundare, said government was working on ways to checkmate the illegal felling of tree. He also said much of the blame goes to state governments.
Mr. Ogundare said although the federal government makes policies and regulations governing the operations of forestry across the country, state governments who own the forests were not helping to protect it.
“It is unfortunate that state governments now give financial targets to forestry departments to meet each year, and that means felling more trees,” he said.
Teni Odujinrin, an environmental lawyer and Chief Executive Officer of EnSol, said proper management of its forestry presented Nigeria with a good opportunity of benefiting from the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol.
“Nigeria stands the advantage of earning Clean Development Mechanism carbon credits if proper actions are taking to invest in forestry, as it has the potentials of sequestering carbon oxide from the atmosphere,” she said.
For Joanne Olori, Chief Operating Officer of Eco-Afrique, a company propagating the planting of Jhatropha plants as a means of containing the impact of climate change, the country is not utilizing the advantages inherent in tree plants to cushion the impact of climate change.
“Government, therefore, has the opportunity to fine-tune the tree planting campaign to ensure that impacts of climate change on Nigerians are not only reduced but people empowered to start eking a living from the planting of economic trees,” she said.
The study, conducted in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, revealed that more people are earning their livelihood from firewood trading; while local fabricators are making brisk business designing cold-pot and other types of stoves that uses firewood and charcoal for fuel.
The study, which collected data from 360 firewood collectors, sellers, buyers and users, said that the estimated demand for firewood in each household in Bauchi State alone is 5,521 metric tonnes per month.
“This,” Mr. Nura said, “is akin to burning 27,607 metric tonnes of carbon per month.”
Perhaps things would not have been so bad had Nigeria been committed to its tree planting obligations.
During the 2006 conference of parties to the Kyoto protocol in Nairobi, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to announce an ambitious initiative of planting one billion trees as one of the strategies of mitigating the impacts of climate change.
The initiative, headed by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai, was supported by United Nations Environment Programme, Prince of Monaco and a host of other international organizations. It seeks to commit governments, organizations and individuals to plant trees in their various locations.
The target has since been reviewed; and a higher ambition of seven billion trees set after studies showed that the initial target of one billion was surpassed. All this was done without any help from Nigeria.
Though Nigeria instituted a tree planting campaign in the 1990s, the project has been turned into an annual ritual where government officials corruptly enrich themselves in the name of planting trees.
The ceremony has also become a political gathering where local government chairmen, governors, and their wives plant trees amidst much pageantry, without reflecting on what became of the trees planted the previous years.
For instance, at Ogbadigbo Local Government Area of Benue State, north central Nigeria, a specific park within the local government secretariat is used yearly for the exercise. But no one appeared concerned that trees planted the previous year were no longer blooming.
Nigeria is among the laggards in a global survey of numbers of trees planted by countries.
Yet, the current usage level of firewood in Nigeria suggests that rather than plant them, Nigerians are felling more trees.
Inaccessible energy sources
An expert said the demand for wood fuel is on the increase due to the inability of a majority of Nigerians to afford other means of energy for their daily cooking.
Salisu Suleiman of the Ahamdu Bello University said that government needed to articulate a comprehensive plan for tree planting campaign and stop paying lip service to the exercise.
“If wood fuel is used in urban areas like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan, then one can only imagine the situation in rural areas,” Suleiman said. “Wood fuel is cheaper than kerosene and as long as that remained the case, trees will continue to be chopped down for firewood.”
Mr. Suleiman said that a major reason for the depletion of the Nigerian forest was the fact the firewood and charcoal still constituted the major cooking fuel in many homes.
In Jos, North Central Nigeria, firewood business, according to Jane Pam, is a money-spinning business that had served as a source of livelihood for thousands of women in the city.
Mrs. Pam said those who patronize the traders include bakers, households, and restaurants; including women involved in the frying of bean and flour cakes.
Another trader in the firewood business, Adamu Mohammed, said most of their supplies come from the hinterland.
The Hose and Zaramaganda suburbs of Jos are famous centres for firewood traders. Heaps of firewood litter the area, with women making brisk business. Trucks daily bring in new supplies; while others fan out to distribute firewood to customers within the metropolis.
Madam Jumai, a firewood dealer in Hose, claimed to have used proceeds from her trade to train all her four children up to university level.
Blame the states
The Director of Forestry at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Lawrence Ogundare, said government was working on ways to checkmate the illegal felling of tree. He also said much of the blame goes to state governments.
Mr. Ogundare said although the federal government makes policies and regulations governing the operations of forestry across the country, state governments who own the forests were not helping to protect it.
“It is unfortunate that state governments now give financial targets to forestry departments to meet each year, and that means felling more trees,” he said.
Teni Odujinrin, an environmental lawyer and Chief Executive Officer of EnSol, said proper management of its forestry presented Nigeria with a good opportunity of benefiting from the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol.
“Nigeria stands the advantage of earning Clean Development Mechanism carbon credits if proper actions are taking to invest in forestry, as it has the potentials of sequestering carbon oxide from the atmosphere,” she said.
For Joanne Olori, Chief Operating Officer of Eco-Afrique, a company propagating the planting of Jhatropha plants as a means of containing the impact of climate change, the country is not utilizing the advantages inherent in tree plants to cushion the impact of climate change.
“Government, therefore, has the opportunity to fine-tune the tree planting campaign to ensure that impacts of climate change on Nigerians are not only reduced but people empowered to start eking a living from the planting of economic trees,” she said.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
A season of snake bites
The coming of the rainy season has brought mixed feelings to the people of Gombe State and other communities in the Benue and Niger valley. Farmers in the area are worried about snake bites, a common occurrence in the area during the season.
Snakebites are a major medical issue in the rural communities of the savannah region of
West Africa, including Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina-Faso,
Mali, Niger and Cameroun. Saw-scaled vipers, puff adders and cobras are most
likely to cause death from snakebite in this region. Children, women, farmers,
herdsmen and hunters are at the greatest risk.
Data on snake bites in Nigeria last year was put at 174 per 100,000, while fatality
was between 10 to 20 percent. About 90 percent of bites and 60 percent of
deaths was caused by the dangerous Echis Osecellatus. Recent studies show that
four types of poisonous snakes are identified in Nigeria, three of them being
Naja Nigricolis, Bitis Arientas and Echis Osecellatus.
One of the studies, which was carried out in 2008 by an expert group from the
Federal Ministry of Health found that the Nigeria Echis Osecellatus is one of
the most dangerous in the world. The researchers also found that half of
hospital beds in most of the rural hospitals in the zone were occupied by
snakebite victims at the beginning of the farming season.
Yet, most victims of snakebites are increasingly becoming tired of seeking medical
assistance owing to the perpetual shortage and high cost of anti-venom drugs.
Theo Ochonu, a general medical practitioner with the Federal Medical Centre, Gombe,
said the rising cost and lack of availability of anti-venom in recent years had
put the cost of treatment of snakebites out of the reach of most patients. He
said drugs of doubtful potency may cost between N3,000 and N4,000 at local
pharmacies.
“As a result, useless and potentially dangerous remedies such as the resort to the
use of black snake stone have gained popularity among the populace,” he said.
The Federal Ministry of Health recently warned that there is an acute shortage of
anti-venom vaccine in the country. This, it said, was because the traditional
suppliers from South Africa and Sanofi Pasteur were unable to meet demands from
Gombe and other affected states.
This shortage, according to Dr. Ochoun, has resulted in increasing number of
patients bleeding to death or surviving with amputated extremities.
The cure despised
Nigeria could produce a more potent anti-venom drug, if its officials desired to. The Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, working with the EchiTab Study Group, established
in 2000 by the federal government, appeared to have produced an anti-venom
vaccine capable of treating all kinds of snakebites in the country.
The scarcity and high incidence of death from snakebites was, itself, responsible
for the setting up of the EchiTab Study Group.
The group, comprising Nigerian experts and their UK counterparts, had the mandate
of finding vaccine-based solutions to incessant snake bites in the country.
They were to also conduct research to develop effective anti-venoms against
poisonous Nigerian snakes.
The aim of constituting the group, according to the late minister of health,
Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, was to ensure that no Nigerian died of snakebites any
longer.
After exporting over 150 snake species to the Liverpool School from Nigeria, the
group was able to develop the vaccine.
The snakes were kept in herpetaium and then milked, and their venoms formed the raw
materials for the production of the anti-venoms.
During clinical trials, several hundreds were successfully treated with the
anti-venoms in various designated hospitals and clinics across the country.
Statistics from the Kaltungo General Hospital, Gombe State, and the Jos University
Teaching Hospital’s Comprehensive Health Centre in Zamko, Plateau State, showed
that a total of 5,574 snakebite victims were treated with the anti-venoms
between 2005 and 2008.
The expected support from the federal government towards the mass production of
this vaccine has, however, not come since the completion of the trials last
year.
It is believed that the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom, Jos could be used to
start this production.
Even if the federal government will not do it, the various state governments within the
Niger-Benue valley should invest in the production of the vaccine, Dr. Ochonu
said
Snakebites are a major medical issue in the rural communities of the savannah region of
West Africa, including Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina-Faso,
Mali, Niger and Cameroun. Saw-scaled vipers, puff adders and cobras are most
likely to cause death from snakebite in this region. Children, women, farmers,
herdsmen and hunters are at the greatest risk.
Data on snake bites in Nigeria last year was put at 174 per 100,000, while fatality
was between 10 to 20 percent. About 90 percent of bites and 60 percent of
deaths was caused by the dangerous Echis Osecellatus. Recent studies show that
four types of poisonous snakes are identified in Nigeria, three of them being
Naja Nigricolis, Bitis Arientas and Echis Osecellatus.
One of the studies, which was carried out in 2008 by an expert group from the
Federal Ministry of Health found that the Nigeria Echis Osecellatus is one of
the most dangerous in the world. The researchers also found that half of
hospital beds in most of the rural hospitals in the zone were occupied by
snakebite victims at the beginning of the farming season.
Yet, most victims of snakebites are increasingly becoming tired of seeking medical
assistance owing to the perpetual shortage and high cost of anti-venom drugs.
Theo Ochonu, a general medical practitioner with the Federal Medical Centre, Gombe,
said the rising cost and lack of availability of anti-venom in recent years had
put the cost of treatment of snakebites out of the reach of most patients. He
said drugs of doubtful potency may cost between N3,000 and N4,000 at local
pharmacies.
“As a result, useless and potentially dangerous remedies such as the resort to the
use of black snake stone have gained popularity among the populace,” he said.
The Federal Ministry of Health recently warned that there is an acute shortage of
anti-venom vaccine in the country. This, it said, was because the traditional
suppliers from South Africa and Sanofi Pasteur were unable to meet demands from
Gombe and other affected states.
This shortage, according to Dr. Ochoun, has resulted in increasing number of
patients bleeding to death or surviving with amputated extremities.
The cure despised
Nigeria could produce a more potent anti-venom drug, if its officials desired to. The Liverpool
School of Tropical Medicine, working with the EchiTab Study Group, established
in 2000 by the federal government, appeared to have produced an anti-venom
vaccine capable of treating all kinds of snakebites in the country.
The scarcity and high incidence of death from snakebites was, itself, responsible
for the setting up of the EchiTab Study Group.
The group, comprising Nigerian experts and their UK counterparts, had the mandate
of finding vaccine-based solutions to incessant snake bites in the country.
They were to also conduct research to develop effective anti-venoms against
poisonous Nigerian snakes.
The aim of constituting the group, according to the late minister of health,
Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, was to ensure that no Nigerian died of snakebites any
longer.
After exporting over 150 snake species to the Liverpool School from Nigeria, the
group was able to develop the vaccine.
The snakes were kept in herpetaium and then milked, and their venoms formed the raw
materials for the production of the anti-venoms.
During clinical trials, several hundreds were successfully treated with the
anti-venoms in various designated hospitals and clinics across the country.
Statistics from the Kaltungo General Hospital, Gombe State, and the Jos University
Teaching Hospital’s Comprehensive Health Centre in Zamko, Plateau State, showed
that a total of 5,574 snakebite victims were treated with the anti-venoms
between 2005 and 2008.
The expected support from the federal government towards the mass production of
this vaccine has, however, not come since the completion of the trials last
year.
It is believed that the Veterinary Research Institute at Vom, Jos could be used to
start this production.
Even if the federal government will not do it, the various state governments within the
Niger-Benue valley should invest in the production of the vaccine, Dr. Ochonu
said
Swine Flu: Nigeria on high alert
The world woke last Saturday to the scary news of another Influenza pandemic in Mexico, which quickly spread to other parts of the globe.
Outside Mexico where more than 160 persons have died, the United States is the only country where the virus has claimed a life.
The influenza, known as Swine Flu, is contracted through contact with swine. It is rated by the World Health Organisation as one of the most deadly viruses to have hit the human race.
The American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that the extent of the spread of the flu would be wide.
But reaction to the spread has been swift, with world leaders quickly moving into action to curtail the pandemic. Taking a clue from other countries, Nigeria has issued an alert advising the populace on the symptoms to look out for. The government also announced some of the measures already taken to safeguard Nigerians.
Babatunde Osotimehin, Nigeria Minister of Health who issued the alert said that though no cases had being reported in the country, government was putting in place mechanism to contain any possible outbreak.
“We have to warn the public early because Nigerians are known to travel back and forth and this flu is airborne and could be brought into the country by a passenger,” he said.
Mr. Osotimehin said surveillance measures had being strengthened at all ports of entry into the country, while adequate quantities of Tamiflu had being stocked to address any outbreak.
Vigilance at ports
Minister of Environment, John Odey also issued strict instructions to those manning the nation’s sea and airports.
Mr. Odey said any vessel, cargo or passenger plane entering the country would be properly screened and cleaned to ensure that the virus does not spread to Nigeria.
The authorities of the National Hospital, Abuja also assured Nigerians of their preparedness to take in suspected cases of the flu and quarantine victims and undertake appropriate medical steps to prevent the spread in the country.
Nigeria also placed an indefinite ban on the importation of pork, pigs and other meats from countries already affected by the flu; as part of measures to prevent the spread of the flu into the country.
Meanwhile, the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom has started collecting samples from pigs in preparation for any possible outbreak and had already designated a laboratory for swine flu research.
“The Swine flu is a disease caused by a virus creating a flu-like condition,” the Executive Director of the Institute, Lami Lombin said. “There are different types, which can be differentiated by the H and N antigens.”
She said that swine flu is a tripartite combination of flu in bird, man and pigs.
“Scientists said that the potentials of the flu affecting man, bird and pig is what makes it a threat, otherwise the antigens of H1 and N1 has long been in existence,” she said.
She also acknowledged that the threat was real since the flu has the ability of moving from animal to man, jumping specie barrier.
Lombin said that Nigeria was under threat of the disease as a result of human movement. She said the situation was made worse as the epidemiology of the swine flu has not been understood.
History of flu
The present outbreak was not the first time the world is experiencing the disease. Records show that it first occurred in 1918, and in 1976 and 2007.
Records from the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that a flu, known as “Spanish Influenza Strain,” infected a third of the world population and caused as many as 50 million deaths between 1918 and 1919. So far, the disease is suspected to have killed more than 160 people in Mexico and sickening hundreds more around the globe.
Outside Mexico where more than 160 persons have died, the United States is the only country where the virus has claimed a life.
The influenza, known as Swine Flu, is contracted through contact with swine. It is rated by the World Health Organisation as one of the most deadly viruses to have hit the human race.
The American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that the extent of the spread of the flu would be wide.
But reaction to the spread has been swift, with world leaders quickly moving into action to curtail the pandemic. Taking a clue from other countries, Nigeria has issued an alert advising the populace on the symptoms to look out for. The government also announced some of the measures already taken to safeguard Nigerians.
Babatunde Osotimehin, Nigeria Minister of Health who issued the alert said that though no cases had being reported in the country, government was putting in place mechanism to contain any possible outbreak.
“We have to warn the public early because Nigerians are known to travel back and forth and this flu is airborne and could be brought into the country by a passenger,” he said.
Mr. Osotimehin said surveillance measures had being strengthened at all ports of entry into the country, while adequate quantities of Tamiflu had being stocked to address any outbreak.
Vigilance at ports
Minister of Environment, John Odey also issued strict instructions to those manning the nation’s sea and airports.
Mr. Odey said any vessel, cargo or passenger plane entering the country would be properly screened and cleaned to ensure that the virus does not spread to Nigeria.
The authorities of the National Hospital, Abuja also assured Nigerians of their preparedness to take in suspected cases of the flu and quarantine victims and undertake appropriate medical steps to prevent the spread in the country.
Nigeria also placed an indefinite ban on the importation of pork, pigs and other meats from countries already affected by the flu; as part of measures to prevent the spread of the flu into the country.
Meanwhile, the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom has started collecting samples from pigs in preparation for any possible outbreak and had already designated a laboratory for swine flu research.
“The Swine flu is a disease caused by a virus creating a flu-like condition,” the Executive Director of the Institute, Lami Lombin said. “There are different types, which can be differentiated by the H and N antigens.”
She said that swine flu is a tripartite combination of flu in bird, man and pigs.
“Scientists said that the potentials of the flu affecting man, bird and pig is what makes it a threat, otherwise the antigens of H1 and N1 has long been in existence,” she said.
She also acknowledged that the threat was real since the flu has the ability of moving from animal to man, jumping specie barrier.
Lombin said that Nigeria was under threat of the disease as a result of human movement. She said the situation was made worse as the epidemiology of the swine flu has not been understood.
History of flu
The present outbreak was not the first time the world is experiencing the disease. Records show that it first occurred in 1918, and in 1976 and 2007.
Records from the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that a flu, known as “Spanish Influenza Strain,” infected a third of the world population and caused as many as 50 million deaths between 1918 and 1919. So far, the disease is suspected to have killed more than 160 people in Mexico and sickening hundreds more around the globe.
Lake Nyos: A disaster foretold
The federal government is yet to implement any of the recommendations that might prevent the likely eruption of the volcanic Lake Nyos, three years after a technical team assessing the danger of the lake submitted its report.
Only last January, the government announced that N26 billion had been budgeted to construct the much needed buffer dam at the Nigeria side of the lake.
The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Sayyadi Ruma, who disclosed this said the threat of the lake was real and is a serious source of concern to the government.
“The threat of Lake Nyos is real, government has conducted a critical study on the implication of a possible eruption and concluded that thousands of lives were at risk in frontline states,” he said.
“As a result of this, and for the safety of Nigerians, government has decided to construct a buffer dam which will reduce the impact of any possible eruption.”
Work on the dam is yet to start, although the government study was completed in 2007. That year, the federal government constituted a technical committee with membership from its agencies and the academia, to undertake an assessment tour of the lake and recommend appropriate measures to safeguard Nigerians.
The committee visited states bordering the lake and went to the foot of the lake to assess the level of leakage. It completed its assignment before the end of ex-president Obasanjo’s tenure.
Part of the submissions of the committee made to Babagana Kingibe, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, was that over 40 million Nigerians were at risk should the lake erupt.
The committee also said some states hitherto considered safe, are now vulnerable. These include Kogi, Enugu, Adamawa and Taraba states. It therefore, urged the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, instal an early warning system at strategic positions around the lake to alert Nigerians of any impending danger.
It also advised government to construct some buffer dams at the foot of the lake to reduce the impact of any eruption; as it was discovered that more than 5 million cubic meters of water would be released, along with tonnes of stones, should the base of the lake cave in.
Shades of fear
In 2006, the Benue State government raised the alarm about the possibility of a volcanic eruption at the Lake Nyos. Though located in Western Cameroon, the lake is adjacent to Nigeria in the elbow region of West Africa. The government had then warned that in the event of a possible eruption, human lives and properties spread over about 12 out of the state’s 23 local governments would be severely affected.
It further stated that human casualties in the entire country could be in millions as other Nigerian states bordering Cameroon were likely to be affected.
The Benue alarm followed the discovery by scientists and local farmers of an unusual leakage at the foot of the lake, considered to be faster than what used to be.
At least two agencies of the United Nations have voiced their fears about the latent dangers of the lake. According to the United Nations Environment Programme the world would witness the greatest humanitarian crisis on the African continent should the lake erupt.
There are also warnings that a natural barrier hemming in the lake waters is on the brink of collapse, although the government of Cameroon has said there was no cause to fear.
A report issued recently by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that if the lake fails, water would rush downstream and flood several villages in Cameroon and Nigeria.
The report also said that hundreds of thousands of people would be killed; livestock and farmlands would be destroyed.
But as the issues continue to generate reactions from within and outside Nigeria, scientists from Cameroon’s Institute of Mining and Geological Research have allayed the fears.
Though they acknowledged that the dam around the lake has weakened, Cameroon says there’s no fear of an immediate threat of collapse. It also informed a United Nations’s inspection team, which said the dam had sagged seriously and would not last another two decades unless it is reinforced, that such a measure was too expensive for it to bear.
Once bitten…
There ought not to be any quibbling over the dangers posed by Lake Nyos. A similar discovery was made in 1986. But due to inaction, a rich stream of carbon dioxide was expelled from the floor of the lake at a speed of about 100km per hour.
This poisonous cloud quickly enveloped houses that were within 120 meters above the shore line of the lake and, because its density was 1.5 times that of air, the gaseous mass hugged the ground surface and descended the valley at about 20 to 30km per hour. It killed some 2,000 people and 6,000 head of livestock.
One of the survivors of that deadly eruption was Joseph Nkwain, from the Subum region of the Cameroon.
In his testimony afterwards, Mr. Nkwain said he was awakened at about midnight on that fateful day by a loud noise. “I could not speak,” he said. “I became unconscious. I could not open my mouth because then I smelled something terrible. I heard my daughter snoring in a terrible way, very abnormal; when crossing to her bed, I collapsed and fell.”
He came out of his deep slumber the next morning only to discover that most of his neighbours were no more, as they had died from asphyxiation.
This was the fate the Benue government was trying to avoid for its citizens when it raised the alarm. The state had already taken some proactive measures, including the building of resettlement camps with a grant from the federal government.
A geologist at the University of Jos, Okar Matthew, said that it was regrettable that the government was slow in implementing the recommendations of the technical committee.
Dr. Matthew said the government should have established evacuation sites, preparatory to any eruption, by now if it was responsive to the needs of its citizens.
Nigeria Unite, a Benue-based non-governmental organisation working to highlight the dangers of the lake, warned that its eruption would create more problems for the country than the amount to be spent preventing it.
Its chairperson, Justina Akor, appealed to the government to put in place measures that would protect Nigerians from any possible disaster. “The ball is now in the court of Nigeria to adopt measures capable of protecting its citizens from the dangers posed by the lake,” she said.
Only last January, the government announced that N26 billion had been budgeted to construct the much needed buffer dam at the Nigeria side of the lake.
The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Sayyadi Ruma, who disclosed this said the threat of the lake was real and is a serious source of concern to the government.
“The threat of Lake Nyos is real, government has conducted a critical study on the implication of a possible eruption and concluded that thousands of lives were at risk in frontline states,” he said.
“As a result of this, and for the safety of Nigerians, government has decided to construct a buffer dam which will reduce the impact of any possible eruption.”
Work on the dam is yet to start, although the government study was completed in 2007. That year, the federal government constituted a technical committee with membership from its agencies and the academia, to undertake an assessment tour of the lake and recommend appropriate measures to safeguard Nigerians.
The committee visited states bordering the lake and went to the foot of the lake to assess the level of leakage. It completed its assignment before the end of ex-president Obasanjo’s tenure.
Part of the submissions of the committee made to Babagana Kingibe, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, was that over 40 million Nigerians were at risk should the lake erupt.
The committee also said some states hitherto considered safe, are now vulnerable. These include Kogi, Enugu, Adamawa and Taraba states. It therefore, urged the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, instal an early warning system at strategic positions around the lake to alert Nigerians of any impending danger.
It also advised government to construct some buffer dams at the foot of the lake to reduce the impact of any eruption; as it was discovered that more than 5 million cubic meters of water would be released, along with tonnes of stones, should the base of the lake cave in.
Shades of fear
In 2006, the Benue State government raised the alarm about the possibility of a volcanic eruption at the Lake Nyos. Though located in Western Cameroon, the lake is adjacent to Nigeria in the elbow region of West Africa. The government had then warned that in the event of a possible eruption, human lives and properties spread over about 12 out of the state’s 23 local governments would be severely affected.
It further stated that human casualties in the entire country could be in millions as other Nigerian states bordering Cameroon were likely to be affected.
The Benue alarm followed the discovery by scientists and local farmers of an unusual leakage at the foot of the lake, considered to be faster than what used to be.
At least two agencies of the United Nations have voiced their fears about the latent dangers of the lake. According to the United Nations Environment Programme the world would witness the greatest humanitarian crisis on the African continent should the lake erupt.
There are also warnings that a natural barrier hemming in the lake waters is on the brink of collapse, although the government of Cameroon has said there was no cause to fear.
A report issued recently by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that if the lake fails, water would rush downstream and flood several villages in Cameroon and Nigeria.
The report also said that hundreds of thousands of people would be killed; livestock and farmlands would be destroyed.
But as the issues continue to generate reactions from within and outside Nigeria, scientists from Cameroon’s Institute of Mining and Geological Research have allayed the fears.
Though they acknowledged that the dam around the lake has weakened, Cameroon says there’s no fear of an immediate threat of collapse. It also informed a United Nations’s inspection team, which said the dam had sagged seriously and would not last another two decades unless it is reinforced, that such a measure was too expensive for it to bear.
Once bitten…
There ought not to be any quibbling over the dangers posed by Lake Nyos. A similar discovery was made in 1986. But due to inaction, a rich stream of carbon dioxide was expelled from the floor of the lake at a speed of about 100km per hour.
This poisonous cloud quickly enveloped houses that were within 120 meters above the shore line of the lake and, because its density was 1.5 times that of air, the gaseous mass hugged the ground surface and descended the valley at about 20 to 30km per hour. It killed some 2,000 people and 6,000 head of livestock.
One of the survivors of that deadly eruption was Joseph Nkwain, from the Subum region of the Cameroon.
In his testimony afterwards, Mr. Nkwain said he was awakened at about midnight on that fateful day by a loud noise. “I could not speak,” he said. “I became unconscious. I could not open my mouth because then I smelled something terrible. I heard my daughter snoring in a terrible way, very abnormal; when crossing to her bed, I collapsed and fell.”
He came out of his deep slumber the next morning only to discover that most of his neighbours were no more, as they had died from asphyxiation.
This was the fate the Benue government was trying to avoid for its citizens when it raised the alarm. The state had already taken some proactive measures, including the building of resettlement camps with a grant from the federal government.
A geologist at the University of Jos, Okar Matthew, said that it was regrettable that the government was slow in implementing the recommendations of the technical committee.
Dr. Matthew said the government should have established evacuation sites, preparatory to any eruption, by now if it was responsive to the needs of its citizens.
Nigeria Unite, a Benue-based non-governmental organisation working to highlight the dangers of the lake, warned that its eruption would create more problems for the country than the amount to be spent preventing it.
Its chairperson, Justina Akor, appealed to the government to put in place measures that would protect Nigerians from any possible disaster. “The ball is now in the court of Nigeria to adopt measures capable of protecting its citizens from the dangers posed by the lake,” she said.
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