Climate Justice: NGO seeks stronger collaboration with Nasarawa Ministry of Youth

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By Oboh Linus, Lafia

The Beacon Youth Initiative (BYI), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the Education As a Vaccine (EVA), has sought a stronger collaboration with the Nasarawa State Ministry for Youth and Sports Development toward achieving climate justice in the state.

Mr Emmanuel – Envoh Okolo, Executive Director, Beacon Youth Initiative (BYI) stated this when he led the Climate Justice Clubs from three Secondary schools on an Advocacy visit to the Ministry in Lafia.

Emmanuel -Okolo said BYI led the climate justice clubs, mainly girls from Government Secondary Schools Ombi 1, Azuba Bashayi, and Shabu, to demand critical ASKs from the Ministry for Youth and Sports Development.

Envoh Okolo said that BYI, in the last four years, had engaged with the partners, Education as a Vaccine, and others to promote climate justice in Nasarawa state, create awareness, and build the capacity of young women and women with disabilities.

“As part of the programme, we are able to establish a Climate Justice Club in three secondary schools in Nasarawa State, most of these students are girls. Our selection is based on the fact that women, young girls, and women with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by climate change.

“We were able to expose the students to what climate change is about, the causes, mitigation, and adaptation, and how they can develop locally led solutions to climate change in their communities.

“I am excited to share with you that these students can now plant trees on their own, create awareness on climate change, and impact knowledge on their fellow students as well as their peers in the community,” he said.

According to him, BYI and partners are keen on amplifying the voices of these women, putting them in the right position where they can demand their rights regarding climate design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of programmes.

“As we know climate change is here with us, and action is all that we need now, so the essence of their visit to this ministry today is to demand critical ‘ASKs toward climate change mitigation and adaptation in Nasarawa state,” he said.

The students who were selected from different Government Secondary Schools took turns to demand critical ‘ASKs: Increase and timely release of climate change funding to sustain and expand climate justice clubs in schools.

Institutionalising teacher training to strengthen the delivery of climate education and the adoption of the Understanding Climate Change Handbook into school extracurricular or civic programmes.

Others are expanding and institutionalising climate justice clubs across secondary schools and promoting inclusion of women, girls, and persons with disabilities in climate policy processes.

Responding, Mr Yakubu Kwanta, Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, said the Ministry would be intentional and deliberate in bringing issues of climate change and women to the front burner.

The Commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr Ibrahim-Adamu Alhassan, while agreeing to work toward the realisation of critical Asks as demanded by the students, said all hands must be on deck to achieve the demands.

“We need to be deliberate and intentional in bringing young women and girls on board, and the only way to do that is to co-sign with them, co-plan with them, co-implement with them, and co-evaluate with them.

“I am very excited listening to these young girls. You must saturate your schools with the right knowledge and skills, then we scale up the club beyond three schools to all the schools in Nasarawa state.

“Thinking climate is thinking about the world, we only have one world we have to protect it so that it can serve us. It behoves us that when trees are falling, new ones are planted, we should use earth resources with a sense of responsibility.

Kwanta said the Ministry would craft activities like awareness creation and tree planting and make provisions for other issues raised at the Ministry level in the 2026 budget to ensure climate justice in Nasarawa state.