“We Are Driving Ourselves Toward Destruction” — Obasanjo, UN Sound Alarm on Climate Crisis Fuelled by Human Greed

Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has warned that humanity is accelerating environmental destruction through greed, negligence and the overexploitation of natural resources, insisting that climate change is fundamentally a consequence of human behaviour.

Speaking at a ceremony in Kano where he unveiled his Environment and Sustainability Initiative and Trust Fund named after former Nigerian Bar Association President, Abubakar Mahmoud, Obasanjo said the planet was originally created in balance but has been thrown into crisis by human excesses.

“God created the world in harmony, but through our greed, carelessness and reckless exploitation of nature, we have done more harm than good,” he said, stressing that humanity has placed itself on a “pathway rushing towards destruction.”

He added that while the consequences of climate change are already being felt by many, no one will remain untouched. “Greedy individuals, avarice, negligence, and over exploitation of natural resources may be speeding up the damage to ecological equilibrium established by nature,” he warned.

Obasanjo reiterated that climate change is not a distant threat but a present reality driven largely by human actions, calling for urgent collective responsibility to safeguard the environment. He also revealed that he has personally planted more than 3.5 million trees as part of his ongoing environmental advocacy, describing environmental protection as a global public good that requires shared commitment.

His remarks echo growing international concern over worsening climate conditions. Experts say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense as global temperatures rise, with heatwaves, floods and storms increasingly occurring in regions and seasons once considered safe.

“We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heat wave events are more likely and more severe due to climate change arising from our emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said Peter Thorne, Director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, noting that recent temperature records in parts of Europe have become “mind-bogglingly extreme.”

At the global level, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has also intensified his warnings, accusing powerful interests of undermining climate action for profit.

“Greed sows doubt, denies science, distorts truth, rewards corruption and destroys life for profit,” Guterres said, urging world leaders, businesses and scientists to resist what he described as “profit-hungry forces” threatening the planet’s future.

He stressed that climate responsibility must be shared across all sectors of society, insisting that governments, industries and communities all have critical roles to play in preventing further environmental collapse.