Clarion Olusegun
In the midst of climate challenges, the youth ambassador of Lagos state under Badagry division, Victory Ashaka, who is also a smart climate leader and a poet, in an interview with Agronigeria said climate change affects everybody and it is on everyone to address and mitigate the impact on the environment.
As the 2024 rainy season continues across Nigeria, the season brings not just relief from the scorching sun and heat but also a new era to the looming threat of floods. These floods would wreak havoc on homes, farms, and roads, disrupting daily life and causing widespread damage. It’s a tough time for many Nigerians. Nigeria is facing some big problems because of the changing climate.
In his words: Any climate issues affecting the neighbor also affect everybody. I can as well say that everybody gets affected so we can’t really separate it between the youths, the young and the old.
“Everybody is a part of it, everybody has/is been affected by climate change and everybody contributes to the narrative. Everybody has one way or the other contributed to climate change and then it’s our collective responsibility to also take action to ensure that we gradually ask for change.
He maintained that some of the major solutions to this issue is to encourage youth participation and promote the creation of awareness on what to do and how to do it.
He said: I’ll say the most pressing climate issue facing Nigerian youth today is the issue of awareness for them to get receptive to the concepts of climate change.
“The issue of awareness is the most major or most pressing issue facing Nigerian youths today. When they are aware and fully committed, they will definitely take action.
“The more youths get aware, get educated, get knowledge through various means maybe through enlightening means that will make them more receptive I think the better because that’s one major issue. Awareness is an issue when it comes to climate change for people to know about it. Thus, I think that is one issue that needs to be addressed.
Speaking further, the ambassador stressed that the role of technology and innovation cannot be overemphasized in addressing climate change effects.
He noted that, “technology is gradually taking over in our contemporary society with the advent of AI technology, with the advent of social media different social media platforms which young people are currently/glues too and the attention span of young people has reduced drastically people are now with their phones scrolling, they just want anything fun that they want to get involved in there.”
“The role of technology and innovation in offering climate solutions particularly among the climate enthusiast youth is to ensure that they must find new means to develop or solutions that have the essence of technology and innovation in driving action.
“For instance, if there are applications that young people maximise and it shows them how to go about certain things on a daily basis, I think some of them will get aware. If on social media they get exposed to some of these daily practices that we’re to carry out as young persons it will be most inspiring too because technology and innovation is very crucial to anything you do today.”
He therefore called for government, policy makers and stakeholders’ interventions and advised that they should all make policies that support smart climatic systems, encourage the young ones to accept new inventions, and access to climate conversations.
