Nwafo
BY CHIMA NWAFO
Unimpressed with the inability of both national political leaders and the United Nations Organisation to rise to the challenge and emergency of deteriorating state of the environment, especially the increasing threat from climate change, students from nearly 20 countries collaborated on a global walk-out on Friday, March 15, to deliver their action bulletin couched on placards, to uncaring adults.
FRANCE24 captured the epic global event with the headline – Students around the world skip class to demand action on climate – followed by the intro: “The coordinated ‘school strikes’, being held from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year.”
Building on the momentum of Youth Strike 4 Climate in which thousands of children chanting “Save our planet!” descended on Parliament Square in London penultimate Friday – as part of a school strike movement that has swept across Europe in recent months – to demand action on climate change. Linda Givetash for NBC News, “Demonstrators, many in their school uniforms, skipped class and are refusing to take exams, hoping to gain the attention of political leaders,” reported Linda Givetash for NBC News. Before then, “thousands of students took to the streets of The Hague, the Netherlands, last week while large events have also gained traction over the last several months in Belgium, France and as far afield as Australia.”
Two issues prompt attention from the foregoing, because of some of our cultural peculiarities. First, Nigerian security agencies should learn from the developed world and get civilized in their approach to civil protests. Protest, whether by unarmed youth or adults, is not war against the government or its agencies. But due to the oppressive nature of African rulers, they easily feel threatened. As a result, security agencies often resort to shooting innocent protesters. Take the subject under discussion, despite the tension over Brexit, how did the British Prime Minister, Theresa May and top politicians, react to the students’ demonstration that involved estimated 60 communities across Britain, which reportedly brought traffic to a halt. “One group staged a blockade of traffic, sitting in the street in front of buses and cars while they chanted profanities aimed at British Prime Minister, Theresa May,” noted Givetash.
“A spokesperson for May said that while the government welcomed the students’ engagement, the disruption to schools and lessons would be difficult for teachers. Her Energy Minister, Claire Perry, however, said she was ‘incredibly proud’ of the young people; while opposition Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, expressed his support for the ‘school kids of today whose futures are most on the line.’”
There was no “intelligence report” that hoodlums were to highjack the protest, or that they were sponsored by political opponents. Based on these flimsy excuses, innocent youths would have been gunned down and many arrested and incarcerated in Nigeria. No Nigerian parent would have risked permitting his/her ward to participate in such a demonstration, no matter the nobility of the cause.
The second prompting is: Do our students and youth feel any concern about their ecology, especially those of the Niger Delta region which has been subjected to six decades of non-stop environmental abuse from gas flaring; air, land and water degradation through oil exploitation and environmental pollution occasioned by oil-spilling and pipeline vandalism? Even if there’s a whimper of complaint, definitely, not from students who are considered too privileged to have education in the first place. But after education, under what ecosystem would you live and work and raise your family? Who cares!
While the environment was the focus of the demonstration, many young people said it isn’t the only issue they’re worried about. “It’s a sign of their frustration that our generation, adults that do have the vote or are involved in politics and policy have failed them. We need to start listening to what young people are saying,” said Prof John Barry, of Queen’s University, Belfast.
Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg who founded Youth Strike 4 Climate and Fridays for Future began protesting outside the Swedish Parliament last fall, according the report, “Thunberg went on to address the United Nations climate talks in December, declaring, ‘Our political leaders have failed us. Why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future?’” Ten-year-old Orla De Wardener added: “Learning is important but this (state of the environment) is even more important.”
Some of the lethal effects of climate change which bothers the students include heat wave in Europe which, reportedly killed more than 70,000 people in 2003 across the continent. Stressing the significance of the problem, Professor of Biology, Jonathon Stillman of San Francisco State University, posited: “Heat waves have already produced striking images of mass mortality in animals, from the bleached skeletons of corals across swaths of the Great Barrier Reef to the deaths of horses during Australian summers. Heat stroke from such extreme events is also a present danger for people, especially the elderly, albeit in a less obvious form. Human mortality is different in that a lot of it is not visible in that way. It’s happening in homes or in doctors’ offices, but it’s striking all the same.”
Whereas the professor noted that there are ways to cope with heat waves, he also added, “but they won’t be available for everyone, or for every species.” Conversely, there are no findings yet on how oil-bearing communities can cope with the rising deadly fumes from gas flare with an unreliable deadline of 2020. Unlike a privileged youth from an industrialised and economically advanced welfare state, such Sweden, whose government can provide ways to cope with heat waves, the Nigerian student or young Niger Deltan has no protection whatsoever from the debilitating impacts of oil pollution from either the Federal Government or her joint-venture partners. Yet, neither the students, their parents nor even so-called enlightened urban-dwellers is concerned about such issues which affect everyone, irrespective of age or status.
For example, while communities suffer unwholesome ecological impacts crude oil exploitation and unheeded end-to-flaring timelines, a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year “warned that emissions must drop 45 per cent below 2010 levels by 2030, in order to avoid devastating consequences for the planet by the end of the century.”
A London student who took part in the demonstration, Tallulah Guard, encapsulated his colleagues’ raison d’etre in the following words: “Young people have so much passion and energy, and so much enthusiasm for issues like this.And considering it’s our future, I think we need to be listened to.” And from all indications, the world is actually listening.
But going by the records, who will listen to student-demonstrators in Africa?
*Nwafo, Consulting Editor with News Express, can be reached on [email protected]; +2348029334754.
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