Nigeria’s population needs to be properly managed – Lagos Deputy Gov

By Oluwatope Lawanson

Deputy Gov. Obafemi Hamzat of Lagos State has stressed the need for the nation to control its population to limit the threat of climate change and protect the environment.

Hamzat made the remarks at a lecture to celebrate the 70th birthday and retirement of Prof. Babajide Alo, at the University of Lagos on Tuesday.

According to NAN reports, Alo is an expert in Environmental Management and a Professor of Chemistry at, University of Lagos.

The deputy governor, in the lecture, titled: “The Role and Perspective of Government in Resolving Current Issues on Global Environmental Challenges”, described climate change as a threat to humanity, which needed deliberate and immediate actions to curb.

He said that Lagos state, in the last 10 to 14 years, had taken climate change seriously by putting together numerous policy frameworks and adopting global best practices to shape government’s response to climate change challenges.

”We are aware that as a highly vulnerable coastal state with a rapidly growing population, we must act fast to protect its fragile ecosystems and populations in low-lying areas.

“Guided by the climate change scenarios and the target of achieving net-zero carbon emission by 2050, we identified a series of climate action plans in the water, transport and the energy sectors respectively,” he said.

The deputy governor explained the efforts made in the transportation sector, adding that the state government plans to expand the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network, deploy low-emission buses and provide vehicles to the BRT traffic edge.

On the energy sector, he said that there was a deployment of decentralised renewable energy installations such as solar photovoltaic systems in schools, hospitals and municipal buildings.

He further said that the nation needed to manage its population as there were many fathers who could not meet up with the challenge of raising their children.

In his remarks, the Oniru of Iru land, Oba Omogbolahan Lawal, called for the cooperation of the people in the protection of the environment.

Lawal said that government alone could not do it as they rely on the citizen’s support to improve efforts to protect the environment.

He noted that lukewarm support by the citizens may hamper environmental policies from achieving the desired effects.

“Lagos State Government is striving to build a more sustainable city that will be resilient to the effect of climate change.

”Also, there are the efforts of the government to reduce carbon footprint by adapting a compact city plan and establishing six air quality monitoring stations,” he said