The climate system in Nigeria is nothing to write home about. It’s simply messed up because my country has zero to no regard for issues like that. We cut down trees indiscriminately, we don’t have the culture of planting, and we’re cursed with the plague of corrupt and inefficient leaders. In the grand scheme of things, we’re in a huge pot of soup.
And this is evident with the way things are going. We see it on a daily basis. It’s in the heavy and torrential rainfall that hits us, we see it in the harsh sunlight, we see it in the messed-up ecosystem that just won’t let us breathe. It’s everywhere, and we’re in trouble if this keeps going unattended.
When I was a child, Christmas was one of my best periods because of the weather. I loved harmattan. It was always cold and dry. Everything was clean, and the mornings were always filled with fog that gave a homey feeling. When the harmattan came, it lasted for months. Stayed for the entire festive season, well into the first few months of the new year.
I remember periods where the harmattan was so severe that smoke came out of our mouths when we spoke. I remember bathing and watching as the chill frosted right on my body, right as the water ran down my body. Back then, I used to wear lip gloss and rub cream so often because I didn’t want parched lips and white skin.
But then, with time, with every year that passed, the harmattan became weaker and weaker. It also became scattered. It will be strong this week, and it’ll vanish for the next week. And now, it only comes for a few days. A few days at the end of the year, and another few days at the start of the new year. And they’re always so weak!!!
Sadly, this is not even the worst of it. I’ve not experienced severe flooding that can be attributed to climate change. All the floods I’ve been in are always due to terrible roads and terrible drainage systems. But like the harmattan, the one thing that I have trouble with is the heat. The heat these days is just so terrible. Sometimes, it seems that the protection that the atmosphere used to provide is slowly washing away, and we’re made to face the full glare of the harsh sunlight.
I remember one time, back when I was in school, the air was so hot that it was palpable. You could feel the heat in the breeze when it blew; you could feel it rising off the hard-baked ground in waves. When I walked, it felt like a wall of heat was pushing back against me. And the sun.. oh boy! It was harsh and cruel. It was beating down on us so bad. Sometimes, it was like I was in a fiery furnace.
Sadly, such heat didn’t stop during the day. They stretched long into the night. The walls trapped them, and at night, released them all. So, the house was always hot. Despite bathing before sleeping, I found myself waking up, drenched in sweat. All my sheets were soaked with sweat. And even as I took my bath again, that late at night, I knew it was changing nothing.
When it got that bad, the only thing I could do was turn on the generator if there was no light. Because the only saving grace was the fan. The cool breeze was constantly blowing on me. That was the only way I could think straight.
So, this is how bad the weather has gotten. Our climate system is so messed up that you have rain falling during periods when it shouldn’t. You have heavy rain falling, but the sun is shining fiercely. Or the sun will be harsh, but the weather will be severely cold. Nothing makes sense anymore. This is because we’ve focused more on profits than our environment. We cut trees for building homes, for firewood… but we do nothing to replace them. And these changes affect the natural balance. And we’re paying for that.
I just hope that with time, we the people will become more enlightened and do the right thing so that we can get our planet back, while we still have the time.
