Nigeria is confronting what experts describe as a growing public health emergency, as climate change drives deadly floods, heatwaves and pollution across the country, with devastating consequences for millions.
The impacts are already visible in hospitals and communities.
Malaria, cholera, respiratory infections and malnutrition are spreading faster, affecting mostly vulnerable children and women.
In Niger State, over 200 people recently lost their lives to severe flooding that displaced entire communities and left health centres overwhelmed.
Across the North, desertification and soaring heat are making farming nearly impossible, while in coastal cities, rising sea levels and contaminated water supplies are fuelling cholera outbreaks.
“This is no longer about predictions. We are living the consequences,” said Dr Ozuomba Sixtus, a consultant family physician and chairman of the Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria in Lagos.
Nigerians’ health
“Respiratory diseases, stress-related illnesses, and even pregnancy complications are on the rise. Climate change is already taking a toll on Nigerians’ health.”
Malaria Threat Rising Research by the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) shows climate change is amplifying malaria risk in Lagos and other flood-prone areas.
Mr Adeniyi Adeneye, a public health researcher at NIMR. explained that Climate change is significantly amplifying the threat of malaria in vulnerable regions,”
Heavier rainfall
“Heavier rainfall creates more breeding sites for mosquitoes, while rising heat makes people unwilling to sleep under insecticidal nets, leaving them exposed.”
The study revealed that in surveyed Lagos communities, ownership and use of mosquito nets was zero, a stark contrast to national averages, because residents found them unbearably hot in rising temperatures.
Human Cost for families
In Kano, Fatima Musa, 28, was seen fanning her feverish child outside an overcrowded clinic.
“These are not random illnesses,” she told reporters. “It’s the heat, the floods, the smoke, we are suffering from the weather.”
In Lagos
Others are paying heavily out of pocket. “We spent N50,000 after our daughter got typhoid from floodwater,” said James Duru, a carpenter in Lagos
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