The aforementioned piece written by Dahir M. Hashim and published in this well-liked newspaper of November 10, 2021, had indeed obliged me to have my say concerning the skyrocketing price of cooking gas in Nigeria and how it drives low-income families to shift from this clean fuel to dirty ones.
Actually, cooking gas is regarded asc clean fuel that emits less carbon-dioxide than fossil fuel. It also emits no Black Carbon (BC), which is the leading contributor to global climate change. Nations committed to combating climate change around the world are currently sparing no effort to facilitate affordability of recommended clean cooking fuel like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, for their citizens with a view to achieving goal 13 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and other global treaties on climate change.
Unfortunately, reverse is the case in Nigeria because the current nail-biting high-inflation of cooking gas implies that the country is really not taking the fight against climate change seriously. Now, the skyrocketing price of cooking gas is coercing majority of Nigerians to shift from this certified clean fuel to dirty ones such as charcoal, firewood and kerosene.
Frankly, how Nigerian authorities are handling the issue of deforestation with kids’ gloves reminds me of a British media personality, businesswoman and activist, Mrs. Heather Anne Mills, who said, “Eighty per cent of global warming comes from livestock and deforestation”. Prince Charles, who is the British Queen’s eldest son, also said, “Forests are the world’s air-conditioning system, the lungs of the planet and we are on the verge of switching it off”.
Few days ago, more than 100 countries, including Nigeria, that participated in the recent COP26 World Summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, gave their words to put an end to the terrifying deforestation by 2030 in their respective countries and achieve a net-zero target by 2060. So, the cardinal question here is, what is Nigeria actually doing now to put an end to its petrifying sweeping deforestation by 2030 and achieve a net-zero target by 2060 as pledged by President Muhammadu Buhari?
Being a country that has the largest natural gas reserves in Africa and the fifth-largest exporter of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and a party to a vast array of global climate change treaties, it is unfortunate that Nigeria’s cooking gas is the most expensive in the world. Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said recently that Nigeria has discovered 206 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and is expected to discover additional 600 trillion.
Buhari should lift all the taxes on cooking gas and strive to make it available, affordable and cheap for families across the country in order preventthem the decimation of our pristine forests that are regarded as an air-conditioning fans that play key role in mitigating carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
Mustapha Baba Azare,
Alkali Musa Street, Azare, Bauchi state
08149712150
