At peace with the Nobel Peace Prize

Weathering the peace

The Nobel Prize week is just beyond us and there were a good few recognitions for work done though the most controversial was the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 in recognition of the science and the celebrity of the consequences global warming.

My view is that the award to Al Gore was more about making global warming an agenda issue in the highest forums of human endeavour and government rather then the nut and bolts of what is the accepted or disputed science of global weather phenomena and the consequences.

We might be in some millennial weather cycle or what we experience now might be man-made due to our consumption and disposal, it does not take away from the fact the land and water with the derivatives of food, shelter and resources are the primary causes war and dispute in many places especially Africa and the Middle-East.

Consensus for peace

The peace dividend is in finding fair and equitable means of managing these ever shrinking global resources of land and habitat being lost to development, desertification and the destruction of war all of which require a modicum of good governance and developmental economics.

Sharing the Nobel Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) where peer-reviewed science collides with compromise and political consensus indicates that the greatest advances in responding to climate change and its effects on the environment would come from UN-type organisations rather than weather propeller-heads postulating from citadels of academic overdrive.

The IPCC was formed in 1998 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess and monitor possible climate change cause by human activity the presentation that includes Al Gore gives this citation “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

Another Nigerian in peace

It would be remiss to forget that the Secretary General of the WMO at that time was Professor Godwin Obasi, a Nigerian of impeccable academic credentials who held the position for 19 years from 1984 but unfortunately died in March 2007, no doubt, he would have been very pleased to see this phenomenon lauded and given this kind of profile.

In the end, I am at peace with recognition that the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 regardless of what the detractors, refuseniks and critics have to say on this matter, these recipients have done more to bring this matter into the mainstream, it would however placate the Carbon Nazis.

Global Warming paused for Professor Obasi

All weather stopped

Courtesy - US Climate Change Science Program

I would like to think that on the third of March 2007, Global Warming paused for a minute of silence to acknowledge and pay respects at the passing of the Secretary-General Emeritus of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Professor Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi, a Nigerian by birth had many times been elected the Secretary-General of WMO serving from 1984 - 2003, a period of 19 years in which his last election in 1999 still had him garner two-thirds of the votes from a group of three prospective candidates and making that in the first round of voting.

However, the Professor was special and unique in many ways, a Nigerian worthy of emulation who commanded such great respect amongst his peers that all organisations with meteorological interest contributed a press release to announce his passing.

An amazing achiever

His biography reads thus - he first earned a BSc in Mathematics and Physics in 1959 then went to MIT where he excelled with a distinction M.Sc and then a rare D.Sc (Doctor of Science) in Meteorology in 1960 and 1963 respectively winning an award for the best Doctoral thesis.

Now, MIT sets itself apart by being one of the very few exclusive universities that does not offer honorary degrees, you work for and earn your degree at MIT.

Serving Africa with distinction

When he returned to Africa, he managed the Meteorological Department at the University of Nairobi maintaining the position of Dean of the Faculty of Science from 1967 to 1976. He belonged to the breed of seemingly pan-Africanist Nigerians who used their talents to help brother African nations flourish.

One such person was The Honourable Justice T. Akinola Aguda who was the first Chief Justice of Botswana; he established a legacy that still has Botswana as one of the few African countries that does pay heed to its judicial rulings in letter and in spirit.

What however sets this extraordinary achievers and geniuses apart is the fact that little was known of them, apart from what they had to do professionally; they shown unusual humility and left people in no doubt of their integrity, they drew praise and accolades from peers and leaders but none went to their heads.

They understood that they talents were for service rather than hedonistic showmanship exemplified in shameless garrulous self-publicity and the vulgar show of luxuries earned from inordinate pursuit of wealth to the abandonment of principles, values or dignity.

These role models are few and many have gone, however, somehow the technologies of today would not let them be forgotten as we seek that little gem of wisdom about what made them men of achievement, honour and great respect - and they were above all great Nigerians.

Rest in peace - Professor Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi.