By Mohamed Kamara
The maiden and first African Climate Change Summit 2023 in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi which started on September 4th and ended on September 6th 2023 for the third time after the Paris and Glasgow Climate Change Conferences, developed countries made pledges to Presidents of the developing world about financial bailouts to combat climate change prevention and its challenges affecting the world and Africa. In Paris, and Glasgow, one hundred billion United States Dollars was promised and now another twenty six billion dollars has been promised in Nairobi, Kenya.
Upon all the good speeches from African leaders highlighting the natural potentialities of their countries at the risk of climate change disasters, no one cared to ask the organizers why is it that the monies that had been promised over years is still not forth coming and that their national budgets are not sufficient to cure the disasters that will follow.
The discourse that followed amongst professional speakers gives concern on just where the money will be coming from. Like a Hurricane that trapped the USA from California, Mississippi, and New Orleans to Tennessee, killing people and destroying properties, the rehabilitation process costs millions of dollars. Had it happened in any African Territory? Not even the International Community had adequately solved the problems, so, from what angle are African countries prepared when monies are not coming from elsewhere except from United Stated of America when they are yet to established well equipped institutions to man climate change challenges, when they have to train competent personnel to administer both the preventive and protective challenges, when their population almost above 60% in certain countries have no idea about the effect of climate change not to talk about green light emissions, when large number of countries neglect holding broadcast programs in local languages and when in fact advising their communities about deforestation, afforestation and forestation is interpreted as the white man’s made laws that travels to Africa to destroy our tradition, cultures and customary wellbeing or simply, how much it will cost to maintain ministries and environmental institutions to design ways in minimising climate risk without donor support.
Those behind the hosting of such periodic climate change Conferences comes from countries that are technologically and financially strong, they knew African countries have both moral and financial constrains to manage climate change, they pretend to be making mockery history without positive indicators, for example, the flooding and mudslide that occurred in Sierra Leone over the years had not received any financial bailout, while government laid emphasis on providing lands for relocation purposes, the victims say they could only go to places where amenities such as hospitals, schools, police stations , water and electricity, markets and centers have already been created. Government cannot do it but rather left them at the no go areas where they used to live at the expense of their lives gambling in seconds, hours and days awaiting anything that comes its ways.
Sierra Leone is not alone, may Africa countries maintain slums not fit for humans and the governments have little to solve their problems. The truth is we have been receiving some funds for tree planting but most of the trees were even planted in soils which are not supportive of the plants, the trees are left unwater, no monitoring personnel and from the day when tree planting started in Sierra Leone, we have not been able to plant a tree by now that goes us Somber.
For the 3rd time in our belated history, Sierra Leone has attended the Climate Change Conferences, but thanks to the government for taking its own responsibility to set up its own institutions at its mineral expenditure, had we depended on the rhetoric from the developed countries ours and many other Africa countries can either sink to the sea or wiped out by wild fire.
