Rep. Sam Onuigbo has said that Nigeria must begin a systematic shift away from fossil fuels. The former national lawmaker and sponsor of Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021– often referred to as the Sam Onuigbo Act— stated this while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria.

Onuigbo who said that the Climate Change Act seeks to “foster low carbon emission and develop a sustainable environment in the country” entreated that the country must now commence the shift to renewable energy and move away from fossil fuels in order to lay the foundation for sustainable growth.

“I am positive that the Council, given its composition and leadership will deliver on this important national assignment,” he affirmed speaking on the National Council on Climate Change which is headed by the President.

Rep. Onuigbo, who is the current Chairman, Committee on Security, Special Interventions and Climate Change, and Member of the Governing Board of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), pointed out that climate change is an existential issue so Nigeria must join other countries of the world to take serious action to combat climate change and set the country on the path of sustainable growth.

“This is an existential problem that if not challenged now will create more complex problems in the future. Growing up in the village I used to know six springs and as I am talking to you now five of them have dried up,” he pointed out as an example of the impacts of climate change.

Reacting to the critical efforts by Onuigbo to ensure that Nigeria gets a Climate Change Act, Professor Ubom Bassey of the Department of Science and Environmental Education, University of Abuja, hailed Onuigbo for fighting doggedly for the enactment of the Act and said that effective implementation of the Act is critical to the future of Nigeria.

Recall that the Climate Change Act— Nigeria’s standalone legal framework for combating climate change— was sponsored by Rep. Onuigbo in the 8th and 9th Assembly and signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, on 17th November, 2021 after initially refusing assent to the Bill in the 8th Assembly.

Let’s move to gas