The 29th Day

My inspiration for today's article stems from an old french riddle.

"At first, there's only one lily pad in the pond, but the next day it doubles and thereafter, each of its descendants doubles. The pond completely fills up with lily pads in 30 days, when is the pond half full?"

On the 29th day

I came across this bone chilling riddle and could not just ignore the strong message that it passes across. As you can imagine, my thoughts began to spiral when I applied the same context of this riddle to my beloved country Nigeria.

Oh Nigeria.

Where do I even begin?

I remember when I was in secondary school. I had to journey from the mainland to the island using the Third Mainland Bridge, five days a week for six years of my life. As I traveled across daily, I noticed something. The body of water below the bridge was steadily rising. At first I was not alarmed, bodies of water decrease ad increase pending on so many variables. However as the years went by, the increase became glaringly obvious. I once had to look down the barriers of the bridge to view the ocean but now there was no need; I only had to look straight ahead.

I apologize if you feel that I digressed, but I do have a reason for sharing that particular experience. As a result of global warming, the glaciers are melting. This leads to an increase in global sea level rise. According to scientists,"the recent rate of global sea level rise has departed from the average rate of the past two to three thousand years and is rising more rapidly—about one-tenth of an inch a year. A continuation or acceleration of that trend has the potential to cause striking changes in the world's coastlines."(National Geography). This has already started affecting low- lying nations like the island of Kiribati, which is now almost completely inundated. As a result of this, citizens are on their way to becoming environmental refugees.

Lagos, the biggest city in Africa, is a coastal region. The impacts of climate change can be seen on our shores. Take a look at the ever encroaching shorelines of Bar beach in Lekki. Once a picturesque site for tourism is now a dumping yard of large blocks to prevent the stubborn waves from spilling over.

Mass illiteracy resides in Nigeria due to poor education systems or the lack thereof. And you know, wherever illiteracy goes, it has its tag along best friend, ignorance by its side. As a result of this deadly combination, our leaders do not understand the impact that climate change will have on our environment and economy. Those who do know about it, see climate change as a pesky insignificant issue that should take the back burner. Knowledge of climate change will not deter the growth of the nation, contrary to popular thought. It will bring about discourse that will lead to the implementation of regulations that need to be put in place to prevent imminent disasters.

This is a cry to the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Let us not wait for the 29th day

Let us not wait till our hands are tied and the tragedy that comes with flooding befalls us

Let's act now that we still have the chance!