At COP 30, Nigeria Demands Boost In Global Financing To Restore, Protect Nature

** VP Shettima says country taking steps to restore climate, nature, development balance with $3bn financing

By: Our Reporter

Nigeria has implored the international community to significantly increase global financing to protect and restore nature’s economic value through predictable, equitable, and accessible funding mechanisms.

According to Nigerian Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, since forests, landscapes, and oceans are shared resources that are outside the jurisdiction of any single nation, their protection requires global solidarity.

Senator Shettima stated Nigeria’s position in Belem, Brazil, where he represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a high-level thematic session titled “Climate and Nature: Forests and Oceans,” on the margins of the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) being held in that South American country.

The VP regretted that while nature is probably the most critical infrastructure in the world, it has long been treated as a commodity to exploit rather than an asset to invest in, even as he said Nigeria is solidly driven by this knowledge “to integrate nature-positive investments into” its climate finance architecture.

“Through our National Carbon Market Framework and Climate Change Fund, we aim to mobilise up to three billion US dollars annually in climate finance. These resources will be reinvested in community-led reforestation, blue carbon projects, and sustainable agriculture.

“We call on our global partners to recognise the economic value of nature and to channel significant finance towards protecting and restoring it through predictable, equitable, and accessible funding mechanisms,” he declared.

Senator Shettima contended that the Global South countries that “have contributed least to this crisis, are today paying its highest price,” insisting that for climate justice to be seen as well served, nations that have benefited more “from centuries of extraction must now lead in restoration”.

Accordingly, he called on the global community to increase grant-based finance, operationalise Blue Carbon Markets, and implement debt-for-nature swaps to enable developing countries to invest in conservation.

“We urge the international community to scale up grant-based finance for nature-based solutions, implement debt-for-nature swaps that free developing countries to invest in conservation, operationalise Blue Carbon Markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and strengthen community-led governance so that indigenous peoples, farmers, and fisherfolk are rewarded for their stewardship rather than displaced by it,” he stated.

The Nigerian Vice President said countries that took their forests and oceans for granted had always paid dearly for it, noting that it is the reason why Nigeria will boldly “sit in the front row of any global forum where these twin determinants of ecological order are being discussed.

“We, too, are under siege. We see the signs of danger in deforestation, desertification, illegal mining, coastal erosion, and rising sea levels within our borders. The Sahara advances by nearly one kilometre each year, displacing communities and eroding livelihoods. Each piece of land these threats overcome invites conflict into human lives, compounding our development challenges,” he maintained.

VP Shettima told world leaders and other participants at the high-level session that while Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021 enshrines nature-based solutions as a legal obligation of the state, the nation is “taking bold, coordinated steps to restore balance between climate, nature, and development.”

He continued: “Our National Council on Climate Change provides the institutional backbone for integrating climate action into all sectors of governance. We are implementing the Great Green Wall Initiative, reforesting degraded lands across eleven frontline states, planting over ten million trees and creating thousands of green jobs for our youth and women.

“Through our National Afforestation Programme and Forest Landscape Restoration Plan, we aim to restore more than two million hectares of degraded land by 2030. We have also launched our Marine and Blue Economy Policy to harness the vast potential of our seas sustainably — promoting climate-smart fisheries, coastal protection, and marine biodiversity conservation.”

Senator Shettima reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to working with partners across the globe to “advance a global agenda where climate action becomes synonymous with nature restoration and human prosperity.”

He vehemently rejected the “portrayal of Africa as a mere victim of climate change,” arguing that it “is an outdated narrative” about a continent that is also a source of its solutions.

The Nigerian Vice President listed Africa’s rainforests, mangroves, peatlands, and oceans as some of the planet’s largest untapped carbon sinks, saying young people in the continent are also “the world’s greatest untapped source of innovation and resolve.

“Nigeria believes that COP30 must mark the beginning of a new compact — one that recognises Africa’s ecosystems as global assets deserving of global investment and protection. We invite all partners to join Nigeria and the African Union in advancing the African Nature Finance Framework, designed to unlock private capital for reforestation, ecosystem restoration, and blue economy development across the continent,” he added.

At COP 30, Nigeria Demands Boost In Global Financing To Restore, Protect Nature

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

VP SHETTIMA TO WORLD LEADERS AT COP 30: We Must Stop Pledging And Start Performing To Check Climate Change

• Calls for delivery on climate promises to preserve the planet for future generations
• Says Nigeria targeting 32% emission cut by 2035 with launch of National Carbon Market Framework and Climate Change Fund

By: Our Reporter

Nigerian Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has charged world leaders to move beyond pledging to performance, and from dialogue to taking reasonable action in tackling climate change and its attendant natural disasters that have claimed innocent lives and rendered many homeless across the globe.

“Let COP30 be remembered as the moment when the world moved from pledges to performance, from ambition to action, and from dialogue to delivery,” he declared.

Speaking on Thursday during the Leaders’ Climate Summit at the ongoing 30th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 30), in Belém, Brazil, the Vice President, who is representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reaffirmed Nigeria’s global climate leadership with a commitment to achieving an emission reduction target of 32% by 2035.

Noting that this followed the unveiling of the National Carbon Market Framework and Climate Change Fund, he explained that the new initiatives form the core of Nigeria’s climate finance architecture designed to attract billions of dollars in clean energy and adaptation investments.

With the Framework and the Fund aimed at driving sustainable investment and resilience in the sector in place, Senator Shettima said Nigeria’s renewed climate agenda represents “not just an aspiration, but a solemn national commitment to preserve the planet for future generations.”

Demanding reasonable action against climate change, the Nigerian Vice President said, “The Earth speaks in the language of loss and warning. It tells us that our survival is tied to its well-being. These are the cries that have compelled us to gather, from one city to another, in pursuit of one shared purpose — to save the only home we have.”

Stressing that climate ambition cannot be sustained by goodwill alone, he said, “No nation can finance climate ambition with goodwill alone. We need a reliable and equitable architecture that recognises the realities of developing nations and empowers them to deliver on global commitments.

“I hereby say without absolute certainty that we are not the problem; we are an integral part of the solution. This is why, at COP30, we hope to demonstrate that Africa can lead in carbon capture through forests, in renewable energy expansion, in digital monitoring of emissions, and in regional cooperation that translates ambition into prosperity,” he said.

He maintained that Nigeria is ready “to work with all nations to build a fairer, greener, and more resilient world, one where our children inherit not the ruins of our indifference, but the fruits of our collective resolve.”

VP Shettima stated that the National Carbon Market Framework would enable Nigeria to generate, trade, and retire carbon credits in alignment with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, ensuring transparency and integrity in carbon transactions.

The proceeds, he noted, will flow into the newly established Climate Change Fund to support communities most affected by floods, droughts, and desertification.

Senator Shettima further revealed that the Nigerian government has launched a five-year Carbon Market Roadmap that will lay the groundwork for an Emissions Trading System and a Carbon Tax Regime, reinforced by fiscal incentives to promote clean industrial innovation.

Nigeria’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), validated and submitted in September 2025, outlines the country’s comprehensive strategy across energy, agriculture, transport, waste, and industry.

According to VP Shettima, the Decade of Gas Strategy remains pivotal in powering the transition, balancing natural gas utilisation with expanded solar and off-grid electrification to drive rural energy access and sustainable development.

On his part, UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutierrez, who said it was unfortunate that countries of the world have failed to remain below 1.5 degrees, charged world leaders to embrace a paradigm shift to limit the overshoot magnitude and quickly drive it down in order to salvage what he described as a highly risky situation.

He stated: “I cannot agree more, and the real truth is that we have failed to remain below 1.5 degrees, and science now tells us that the temporary overshoot between the 1.5 limit, starting at the latest in the early 2030s, is inevitable.

“We therefore need a paradigm shift to limit these overshoots magnitude and duration and quickly drive it down. Given the temporary average overshoots and their thematic consequences, it could push ecosystems and expose billions of people to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.

“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement and loss especially for those least responsible. This is more of failure and deadly negligence. The world metrological service has indicated that emissions will begin to increase this year and the 1.5 degrees is a red line for humanity.”

The UN Secretary General urged world leaders to act with speed and scale in order to make the overshoot as small and as safe as possible thus bringing temperatures to back to below 1.5 degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

Also, Brazil’s President, Lula Inacio Da Silva, said it will take a collective effort for the world to fight climate change, emphasizing that fighting climate change must be a priority for every government and individual on earth.

“We will need to overcome the mismatch of lack of connection between diplomatic dialogue and the actual world. It will take a collective effort, listening to indigenous communities and those bearing the brunt of climate change in order to take a global approach to the challenge,” he said.

President Da Silva added that thethe slogan of “Collective Efforts” was adopted for COP 30 to encourage climate action worldwide “from all sectors of society, in particular civic societies and grassroots organizations.”

“Climate change is the result of the same dynamics that, during centuries, has broken our societies between rich and poor. Climate justice is aligned with fighting hunger and poverty, the struggle against racism and gender inequality,” he added.

For his part, the Prince of Wales, Williams, who represented his father, King Charles, at the plenary, said it was time for his generation to safeguard the natural world for generations to come.

“Our children and grandchildren will stand on the shoulders of our collective action. Let us use these inspiring surroundings here in the heart of the Amazon to rise to meet this moment, not with hesitation, but with courage; not with division, but with collaboration; not with delay, but with decisive commitment,” he said.

End

There Is No Place for a Coup in Nigeria

By Ernest Omoarelojie

In recent weeks, Nigeria’s public discourse has been clouded by rumours of a foiled coup plot involving over a dozen military officers and a former governor allegedly “on the run.” While the Defence Headquarters has issued a characteristically ambiguous statement, the very persistence of these rumours—whether grounded in fact or fabricated through disinformation—demands urgent clarification: There is absolutely no place for military intervention in today’s Nigeria.

This isn’t mere rhetoric. It’s a data-driven conclusion supported by Nigeria’s painful history, the catastrophic failures of recent military takeovers across Africa’s Sahel region, and mounting evidence of foreign-backed disinformation campaigns designed to destabilise democratic governance across the continent. While it is true that the statement from the DHQ neither confirmed nor denied the reports, the speculation has continued to spread rapidly across social media—fuelled by conspiracy theories, propaganda, and coordinated disinformation. Yet, amid the noise, one truth must be re-emphasised and declared without ambiguity: There is no place for a coup or military junta in today’s Nigeria.

No grievance, however genuine, justifies a return to military rule. Nigeria’s democracy may be imperfect, but it remains the only framework capable of reforming itself without destroying the nation. We have already paid too high a price for the lessons of authoritarianism. The mere imagination of another coup is not only reckless but profoundly dangerous for a country still healing from decades of military misadventure.

Between 1966 and 1999, Nigeria endured six successful coups and several failed attempts. The first, in January 1966, plunged the country into chaos, triggering a civil war that claimed over a million lives and left deep ethnic and regional scars that still shape our politics today. Those years of military interregnum—29 in total—brought suspended constitutions, curtailed freedoms, and economic mismanagement that impoverished generations.
By 1998, Nigeria’s per capita income had declined by nearly 40 per cent from its 1980 levels, inflation had soared, and international sanctions had rendered the nation a pariah. Between 1960 and 1999, Nigeria earned more than $350 billion from oil exports, yet emerged with decrepit infrastructure, foreign debt exceeding $30 billion, and rampant poverty. Transparency International later estimated that at least $5 billion was stolen under one military regime alone.
We cannot forget those years. Military rule did not save Nigeria—it nearly destroyed her.

Since 1999, despite setbacks, democracy has delivered measurable progress. Nigeria has experienced seven consecutive elections and four peaceful transfers of power between parties—unprecedented in our history. Our economy has grown from $46 billion in 1999 to over $440 billion today, making Nigeria one of Africa’s largest economies. Freedom of expression and civic activism have flourished. The media is freer than ever, and civil society continues to shape national debate. These gains, however modest, are the fruits of civilian rule.

Contrast this with recent experiences in Africa’s Sahel region, where coups have been romanticised as patriotic revolutions. In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, soldiers promised stability but delivered chaos. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reports that violent incidents in Mali have increased by more than 150 per cent since the 2021 coup. Burkina Faso recorded over 8,000 conflict-related deaths in 2023—its bloodiest year on record. Niger, once a model of Western partnership, now faces sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and growing insecurity.

Far from restoring order, military juntas have exacerbated corruption, restricted freedoms, and weaponised propaganda to conceal their failures. Transparency International’s indices confirm that corruption perceptions have deteriorated across all junta-led states. Freedom House now ranks every coup-affected nation as “Not Free.” The message is unmistakable: military rule breeds repression and decline, not progress.

Equally alarming is the rise of disinformation designed to destabilise democracies like Nigeria’s. Research by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and EU DisinfoLab has uncovered coordinated online campaigns—some linked to foreign actors—spreading pro-coup sentiment across West Africa. These networks exploit legitimate frustrations over insecurity and poverty to romanticise military rule and sow distrust in civilian institutions.

This is not patriotism; it is manipulation. Every Nigerian who forwards unverified rumours of a coup or glorifies soldiers as saviours is, knowingly or not, amplifying the work of those who wish to fracture our democracy from within.
Let us be clear: democracy is not perfect. Citizens are frustrated by corruption, unemployment, and governance failures. However, the answer lies in deeper reform, not a return to authoritarianism. Democracy allows us to protest, vote, speak, and litigate. Military rule silences all of that. The difference between democracy and dictatorship is not perfection—it is the presence of choice.

Even now, Nigeria’s institutions continue to evolve. The 2022 Electoral Act has improved transparency and electoral integrity. The Freedom of Information Act empowers journalists to demand accountability. The judiciary, although imperfect, is increasingly asserting its independence. These are steps forward—achievements that would vanish overnight under a military junta.

Nigeria’s Armed Forces have repeatedly affirmed their loyalty to the Constitution. That commitment must be protected and celebrated. Civil society, the media, and citizens must also remain vigilant, resisting any attempt—real or imagined—to drag Nigeria back to the dark era of decrees and fear.

In today’s interconnected world, a coup would not only destroy Nigeria’s fragile stability but also trigger economic collapse, diplomatic isolation, and social unrest. The Sahel’s tragedies are warning enough: the gun cannot build what only governance can.

Nigeria’s future lies not in the barrel of a gun but in the ballot box, in civic participation, and in accountable leadership. The path of democracy is hard, but it is the only one that leads forward. For all our imperfections, democracy gives us hope, adaptability, and voice. Military rule silences all three.

And for that reason alone, there is—and must forever be—no place for a coup in today’s Nigeria.

Ernest Omoarelojie is the Director of Media and Communications for Hope Alive Initiative, a pro-good-governance advocate in Nigeria

There Is No Place for a Coup in Nigeria