From Olanrewaju Timothy, Maiduguri
Residents of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, are going through tough weather. A new wave of rising temperature across Maiduguri is spreading pain and anguish, despite the presence of harmattan. Experts said the condition could be associated with global warming, which has been heating up the colder regions, and making historically hot areas become even hotter.
The harsh weather, which is not likely to drop anytime soon, has been a source of worry to many residents of the city. That is because they are used to getting some form of relief in terms of weather at this time of the year.
One of the residents in his 70s, who expressed worry over the development, Bukar Saleh, said: “I am worried, and some older persons have also expressed their concerns too about the weather situation this year. We have never seen a thing like this, not in recent times. We had late rain in Maiduguri this year, and it was also short when it came. Now, the sun is more.”
He was not alone as his concern reverberated across the length and breadth of the city capital.
When the Daily Sun met Saleh, he was relaxing in a wooden chair placed under a neem tree (Dogonyaro tree) beside his house on a sunny afternoon, feeling the temperature, which stood at almost 40 degrees Celsius.
A teenage boy, probably his grandson, walked forward to the small assembly as if he had been sent on an errand, carrying a bag of sachet water from where he started giving cold water to the few old men that were seated on the big mat spread adjacent to the old man’s seat.
“I can see you’re sweating too and we are in December of all months,” he teased the reporter, eliciting a mild, ironic laughter from the guests seated next to him.
Saleh told Daily Sun that he was seriously concerned about the change in climatic conditions. “It is not good. It is not a good omen for us. We need to pray well because the climate has changed,” he said.
Borno’s climate is hot and dry for most parts of the year, although the southern part of the state is milder. The rainy season commences in June and ends in early October, before the harmattan season, which resumes by late October. Within this period, the weather is usually colder, especially in December, with the temperature dropping to as low as 32 degree Celsius or less.
But the season is different this year. It is wearing a strange and unfamiliar face that the residents barely recognise.
A geographer and former teacher in the state, Njadvara Musa, observed that the weather in the state had been marked by a negative shift that borders on change in the climate globally.
“There is a great change in the climatic condition this year. What triggered this is the increase in the temperature. By now, the temperature should be between 30 and 32, but experts are saying that it is going to rise even higher,” he told Daily Sun.
He recalled that rainfall was lower in July and August. “We had higher rainfall in September and early October. This is an indication of a changed climatic condition,” he insisted.
He also observed that the absence of dew in Maiduguri City since October has further exacerbated the harsh climate condition, while explaining that dew usually helps in the growth of some plants, including groundnut and beans.
“Sadly, lack of dew has also contributed to the low yields of these products. This climate change is also creating food insecurity,” he said.
While suggesting ways to tackle the impacts of climate change in the city, Musa implored the state government to return to the culture of annual tree planting.
He maintained that planting more trees every year would save the environment from continuous degradation that it is now witnessing.
Other residents, the likes of Babatunde Alakija and Alhasan Mohammed, equally noted that the change in the weather condition could also be responsible for increasing public health emergencies.
“Outbreaks of measles and the spread of malaria have been on the increase in recent times. The harsh weather may have also contributed to the incidents of these diseases,” Babatunde said.
He urged the state government to partner with the federal government in addressing the negative effects of climate change in the state.
Commissioner for Environment, Emat Kois, was not available for comment at press time. He was away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attending the COP28 climate change summit.
But last weekend, a task team of the World Bank Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project visited Borno State.
The leader of the task team, Joy Iganye Agene, while speaking during a courtesy visit to the governor, admitted that a lot of landmass has been lost to climatic challenges, especially through the path of desert encroachment.
“To reclaim lands that have been lost, the World Bank has constituted a technical team of Joint World Bank/Federal Government of Nigeria Implementation Support Team for the agro-climatic resilience in semi-arid zones,” she disclosed.
She said the objective was to help Nigeria reclaim millions of hectares of degraded land, and convert the landmass into green areas: “The worst affected by the land degradation is the arid zone of the northern part of the state.”
The project team has also identified hilly Gwoza region, south-east of Maiduguri, Ngamdu, a small town along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway, and Uba, southern Borno, for the start of the land reclamation initiative. It is not clear yet how much impact the project will have on the climatic condition of the state.
Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, thanked the World Bank for the intervention in the climate challenge but appealed to the bank to allow the state to take ownership of the project to ensure community participation.