The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has anticipated a spatial distribution of the likelihood of malaria in Nigeria for the months of January to April 2022 in its 2022 Sesonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and has consequently placed coastal states on high vigilance, central states on moderate vigilance and northern states on low vigilance malaria watch list.
Speaking at the public presentation of the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), the Director General/CEO of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Matazu, listed Lagos, Cross River, Imo, Enugu, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Delta/Asaba, Bayelsa, Rivers, Eboyin, Akwa Ibom, Anambra to be on the high vigilance watch list for the month of January and February.
He also said moderate vigilance is anticipated over most parts of the central states such as Niger, Nasarawa, Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Taraba. While the rest of the country should be in low vigilance.
The DG also said the SCP being one of NiMet’s flagship products, has aided in improving the farmers input with improved and appreciable yields.
He also said the SCP as assisted Emergency Management Agencies in the areas of preparedness ahead of unforseen circumstances, and with the assistance of Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), has served as an advisory tool for many stakeholders at the Federal, State and Local Government levels.
Prof. Mansur Matazu, noted that the content of 2022 SCP is multisectoral with co-produced socio-economic implications of the prediction by NiMet and relevant stakeholder, with the challenges of variability in climate viz a viz global warming which has in recent times given rise to high rainfall amounts occurring within a short duration and subsequently, made flash flood episodes more frequent.
In a similar vain, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, said every sector of the economy must put in place measures to alleviate the sufferings of the people and improve the economy.
Sen. Sirika noted that, the 2022 SCP theme: ” Strengthening Climate Actions through Timely and Impact-based Climate Prediction for Economic Recovery”, is apt and should be fully supported.
According to him, Nigerians must rise to take up their forecast and respond with appropriate actions for resilience, adaptation, and mitigation, adding that the forecasts are perishable and range from now casting, short, medium, and long term categoey where the SCP belong.
He gave the highlights of the SCP to include: onset and cessation dates of the cropping season; length of the growing period; rainfall amount; Temperature forecast for the host season (January to April); dry spell and little dry season; malaria and meningitis vigilance; and lastly socio economic implications of the predictions.
