Funmi Lawrence
No fewer than 30 schools in Abuja on Monday converged to lend their voices to the challenges of climate change, calling on the government to help maintain safer environment for all.
They said that it was important for government at all levels to increase budget for environment as to address the problems that climate change poses to man and the environment.
The students called for government interventions in addressing the problems at the Abuja Secondary Schools Environmental Consciousness Conference (ASSEC) organised by Clean Technology Hub, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO).
Sumayya Musa-Imam from Government Girls Secondary School (GSS) Dutse said the conference had informed students on the problems of climate change and the best approach to addressing it.
She called on the government to make available more funds to tackle the problem of gas flaring, deforestation, plastic pollution and others that could result in climate change.
“The conference is apt; students are being encouraged to proffer actionable solutions to the problems because if we don’t do it now the human beings may go into extinction.
“As a school, we have designed a device that can transform plastic to crude fuel. We saw the problem in our country and we decided to produce this device that can curb unemployment, epileptic power supply and the rest.
“We now know that we can convert our wastes to wealth by processing the plastic rather that disposing it to litter the environment.’’
Also, Isaac Ero, an SS2 student of GSS Kubwa said government at all levels should ensure that the environment was safe to live in.
Ero noted that the students would propagate the information on the danger of what climate change could cause to existence.
He said researches would henceforth be done to make the environment safer.
“On our part as a school, we have produced an alternating smoke absorbing machine which can be used for emitting smoke from the kitchen or industry.
“What this does is that if you don’t want smoke to go outside, you can dissolve it in water and it can also be used to remove toxic waste from the surrounding.’’
Earlier, Mrs Ifeoma Malo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Clean Technology Hub, said secondary schools were targeted to engage them in actions on climate change.
Malo said the organisation would work with schools across the country on ways to collaborate with stakeholders and government at all levels to solve the problems.
“We are engaging the students to see what kind of climate actions they can take within their communities. We do this to get people to take climate action.
“We ask the schools to come up with projects to mitigate climate damages in the environment. With this we see that children have started doing great things in this direction. If we don’t begin to address this, we might be in danger.
“We talk about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but we cannot only be talking about education, health if the earth that is supposed to provide us the platform is not in existence.’’
She, therefore, called on the government to begin to put money aside as part of the solutions to climate change.
In addition, Mr Amara Nwankpa, Director, Public Policy, Shehu Yar’Adua Foundation said it was time Nigerians begin to think about the consequences of their actions in depleting the ozone layers.
Nwankpa explained that Nigerians must begin to look at the environment on ways to protect and conserve it in order to make it habitable for all.
The schools represented at the conference are Government Secondary Schools Dutse, Dutse-Alhaji, Karu, Kubwa, Zuba, Garki Area 10, Nyanya, Wuse and Solid Rock International School, among others.
At the award presentation, GSS Dutse-Alhaji came first; GSS Dutse came second while GSS Jikwoyi came third on the project each school showcased.
