Minister blames climate change for recent Meningitis outbreak

Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has blamed the recent outbreak of meningitis in the country on climate change.

While addressing world leaders at the 106th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, the former governor of Anambra state said the over 1000 casualties recorded during the latest outbreak of the ailment can be blamed on the adverse effects of climate change.

He said, "The adverse effects can be found everywhere in our ecosystem which have manifested in the difficulties associated with the generation of sustainable income, employment opportunities, eradication of poverty and the promotion of better livelihood for the citizenry.

"A manifestation of the adverse climatic condition in my country was the recent outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis which resulted in the death of over 1000 people predisposed by the extreme heat waves which assisted an uncontrollable meningitides bacteria multiplication.

"We therefore cannot but agree with the Director-General, that mitigation of climate change is the most paramount element in shaping the present state and future condition of work."

Stressing on the importance of tackling the problem, the minister pledged the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement of 2015 that US President Donald Trump controversially pulled out of last week.

"Nigeria is a signatory to the Paris Agreement since the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA71) and shall continue to contribute to the implementation of the initiative.

"Indeed combating climate change is one of the cardinal objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari led administration in Nigeria.

"The administration’s commitment to fighting climate change is crystallised in the increasing and substantial budgetary allocations to this sector over the last two years."

He said the country has implemented various measures to tackle the challenges of climate change to fulfill the objectives of the agreement.