West Africa's 1st online newspaper on climate change launched

By Theophilus Ikpome

West Africa's first online newspaper dedicated to opening new vistas in the coverage and reportage of climate change and the region's environment has been launched. The online newspaper (www.climatereporters.com), which was launched over the weekend In Republic of Benin, Cote d'Ívoire and Nigeria simultaneously in commemoration of the 2015 International Francophonie Day envisions an informed, environment-friendly and climate-conscious citizenry living in a safe and serene West African environment, free from climate disasters and environmental despoliation.

Speaking at the launch, the medium's Editor-in-Chief, Atâyi Babs revealed that the newspaper is "dedicated to bringing fresh, crisp and engaging climate reports from all over the world to West Africa, using the region's finest blend of climate story tellers to enhance understanding and engender climate action across the region." 

"We are change catalysts, bringing international climate reports to every doorstep in West Africa at the same time taking the West African climate story to the world,"Atayi added. 

The Future of News in my Community

 I live and work on the Lagos Island, a community that is webbed in on all sides by an overflowing lagoon and a raging Atlantic ocean, all in Lagos state, the former capital of Nigeria and the country’s commercial nerve centre. From my daily interface with the community and my professional experience as a Journalist, it is deducible that the future of news in my community is telephony.

Lagos is, by most estimates, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world as it is currently experiencing a population increase of about 275,000 persons per annum. In 1999 the United Nations predicted that the city's metropolitan area, which had only about 290,000 inhabitants in 1950, would exceed 20 million by 2010 and thus become one of the ten most populated cities in the world. 

Further statistics reveal that with 3, 577sq.km in size and a population figure of 19, 292,522 (as at 2009) in Lagos, there is a huge spectrum of wealth distribution among the people that reside in Lagos. It ranges from the very wealthy to the very poor. Lagos has attracted and continues to attract many young people and families seeking a better life from all parts of Nigeria and beyond. In this cosmopolitan milieu, the imperatives of communication cannot be oversimplified hence information dissemination remains a huge and thriving aspect of daily existence in the state.