As the climate crisis worsens with increased heat and flooding, Nigeria is at the forefront of the problem. Shockingly, only three in ten Nigerians are aware of this serious issue. Youth activist Jennifer Uchendu is working tirelessly to change this, one conversation at a time.
Living on the outskirts of Lagos, 29-year-old banker Akindipe Akinjisola moved to Wawa to avoid the city’s high rent costs caused by urbanisation. However, he is forced to return to the city during the rainy season as Wawa does not have a proper drainage system, leading to dangerous flooding. The situation has only become worse in recent years, with Nigeria experiencing some of the worst flooding in history in 2022, which resulted in the displacement of more than a million Nigerians and 800 deaths.
To address the serious issue of Nigeria’s lack of awareness about the climate crisis, Jennifer Uchendu founded the Eco-Anxiety Africa Project (TEAP) and opened the country’s first climate cafe. The cafe is part of a wider initiative launched by her NGO, Sustyvibes, to promote sustainability and make it more relatable and popular with Africans. Similar cafes are rare in Africa, with only a few in the east of the continent, and most people are yet to discuss eco-anxiety issues.
According to a recent survey by Afrobarometer, only three in ten Nigerians have heard of the climate crisis, and discussion is uncommon due to many considering it as a luxury afforded only to the middle and upper classes. Despite this attitude, Uchendu and her team remain determined to raise awareness of the climate crisis and its impact on Nigeria’s poorest citizens. One issue they have identified is a lack of words for climate change in the local Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa languages. By using local languages, Uchendu hopes to make the conversation surrounding climate change more inclusive and accessible.
Jennifer Uchendu is a leading voice on the climate crisis in Nigeria, having worked with the Nigerian government to pass a national recycling bill, spoken at Cop28, and become an Ashoka Fellow. Her passion for the environment began as a child when she experienced asthma triggered by air pollution. She is now living in the Netherlands, doing a research fellowship on eco-anxiety at the University of Utrecht. Her experience of eco-anxiety is different from that of her English peers, she feels anger and injustice at the idea of Africans suffering the most extreme impacts of the climate crisis, despite little contribution to causing the issue
Read the full article on Positive News here: Read More