{"id":871377,"date":"2025-09-08T00:14:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/08\/bad-timing-for-change-of-leader-at-nigerias-climate-council-campaigners-say\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T00:14:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:14:40","slug":"bad-timing-for-change-of-leader-at-nigerias-climate-council-campaigners-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/08\/bad-timing-for-change-of-leader-at-nigerias-climate-council-campaigners-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad timing for change of leader at Nigeria\u2019s climate council, campaigners say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nigeria has appointed a new head for its climate policy council for the third time in as many years, raising concern among campaigners who say frequent leadership changes could undermine the country\u2019s efforts to tackle climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Bola Tinubu named climate finance expert and environmental lawyer Omotenioye Majekodunmi last week to lead the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), replacing Nkiruka Maduekwe, who led it for just a year.<\/p>\n

With COP30 drawing near, Nigerian climate campaigner David Terungwa said yet another change at the NCCC\u2019s helm could hamper preparations for the UN climate summit in the Brazilian city of Bel\u00e9m in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are barely three months to the COP and you are bringing someone else \u2026 That\u2019s not good [and] doesn\u2019t show how serious Nigeria is,\u201d he told Climate Home News.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year \u2026 we didn\u2019t even know who Nigeria\u2019s negotiators were. We didn\u2019t even hold the national pre-COP meeting to prepare. That was not good, and that was also because [Maduekwe] came in just before the COP,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Another prominent Nigerian climate activist, Olumide Idowu, said a new NCCC leader might invigorate the climate agenda, but warned that it could also \u201ccreate uncertainty and disrupt continuity in policy implementation [and] significantly impact the country\u2019s ambitions to host COP32\u201d.<\/p>\n

Majekodunmi and a spokesperson for Tinubu\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Tight deadline for NDC<\/h2>\n

Set up in 2021 under the Climate Change Act, the NCCC makes decisions and policies aimed at tackling climate change and ensures climate issues are included in state development plans and programmes. It is also involved in representing the country in global climate talks and drawing up the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) climate plan under the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n

Countries are due to submit their updated NDCs next month, but Salisu Dahiru \u2013 the NCCC\u2019s first director-general, said it would be difficult to meet the September deadline given the leadership handover. He noted that his administration had started work on the updated NDC, with work continued by Maduekwe\u2019s team and now handed to Majekodunmi.<\/p>\n

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Nigeria bids to host COP32 climate summit in Lagos<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Under the terms of the 2021 law, NCCC director-generals have a four-year term. But three years since the council began operations, it has had three different heads and none of them have stayed in office for more than two years.<\/p>\n

Dahiru, the first director-general, was dismissed in 2024 after Tinubu assumed Nigeria\u2019s presidency a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Tinubu, in a step that some climate campaigners said sidelined the NCCC, set up a presidential committee on climate action in May 2024 and appointed Ajuri Ngelale as the presidential special envoy to coordinate policies and programmes on climate action and green economic development.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, he named Maduekwe as the NCCC\u2019s new leader, and she represented the country at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and mid-year climate talks in Bonn.<\/p>\n

Frequent changes<\/h2>\n

Dahiru said the frequent changes showed \u201cthey [the government] do not respect the provisions\u201d of the Climate Change Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changing of the DG of the national council is governed by law, it\u2019s an act in parliament that has been signed into law by the president, so if you want to remove somebody follow the law, what it says,\u201d he told Climate Home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Idowu echoed his remarks, saying the constant reshuffles suggested \u201ca lack of respect for institutional integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nigeria, Africa\u2019s\u00a0largest\u00a0oil producer,\u00a0 has recently sought to raise its profile in global climate talks.<\/p>\n

In a bold statement at the close of COP29, former NCCC head Maduekwe called out Global North countries over the agreement to provide $300 billion of climate finance a year by 2035 \u2013 a small part of the $1.3 trillion that had been demanded by Global South nations.<\/p>\n