Heritage Bank, NIMASA Support Ita-Giwa’s Climate Change Initiative

Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, Chairman of the Environment Committee of the 2014 National Conference and leader of Seagull Carnival Band has received support from Heritage Bank and the Nigeria Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to stage a public enlightenment forum on Climate Change.

The discourse with the theme, Climate Change: A Time for Action’ is scheduled to hold tomorrow, Saturday September 10 at the Ballroom of the Oriental Hotel in Lagos. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce representing Bayelsa East senatorial district in the National Assembly will be the special guest of honour, while environmental activist, and Chairman of the Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) committee on awareness and fund raising will give a keynote address.

Tracing the history of her commitment to environmental matters, the prominent leader of Bakassi in Cross River State confessed that she knew very little about the devastation of the environmental until she was given the responsibility to chair the committee on environment during the 2014 National Conference. She said, “I had the privilege to work with many academics and seasoned environmental activists from the civil society. I humbled myself to learn quickly from them.”

Ita-Giwa said she was happy when her state Governor Prof. Ben Ayade chose climate change as the theme for the 2016/2017 Cross River State Carnival. She told the journalists that interpretation of the carnival usually involved serious intellectual work. According to her, “it is easy to conclude that the street parade and the dance is all there is to the carnival, but that is far from the truth. There is fierce competition among the competing bands. What we have decided to do is to bring home salient messages on climate change as projected by my band, the Seagull Band. She said that management of the band had since come to appreciate the need to highlight the consequences of climate change on our fragile planet.

According to her, the band had apparently adopted the advocacy for action on climate change, thereby disseminating the message to a wider audience through lecture and stage presentation to a discerning audience.