How climate crisis in Checheyi community drew attention of German media, I Lead Climate Action Initiative

The Checheyi community within the Kwali Area Council of Abuja, with a clear purpose: to empower women and girls who are on the front lines, acting as crucial, often unseen, change-makers battling the devastating effects of global warming.

​This focus on the Checheyi community offers a critical look at how the global climate issue manifests on a local scale. The visit highlighted the work of Adenike Oladosu, the dedicated Nigerian climate activist who founded “I Lead Climate Action,” whose grassroots initiatives are aimed at empowering women in a country grappling with the alternating extremes of flooding and prolonged droughts.

​Standing amidst the brittle stubble of what should have been a rich harvest, was Mummy Destiny. Her personal struggle immediately crystallized the global crisis.

​”We are experiencing a lack of water,” Mummy Destiny confessed, the weary sincerity of her voice cutting through the heat. “No rain at all. You see this rice? It is supposed to thrive, but it’s just drying up completely.”

​The change was devastatingly simple, affecting every family in the community: where once the planting season promised five full bags of rice, now Mummy Destiny was lucky to get two, sometimes only one and a half.
This agricultural instability threatens not only food supply but also the educational opportunities for girls, who are often pulled out of school when family finances collapse.

​As Adenike’s work argues, the underrepresentation of women in global climate negotiations is a major impediment to finding effective, equitable solutions a truth Mummy Destiny embodied by simply asking for the tools to fight back.

​When asked what the government could do, Mummy Destiny ’s request was immediate and practical: “May they help us with fertilizer.”

This was her desperate measure to give the few remaining plants a fighting chance to grow quickly before the heat swallowed them whole.
​Yet, as Mummy Destiny continued to speak, the full cruelty of the climate’s extremes became clear. When asked if she was also affected by floods, she nodded simply.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
​In the space of one season, Mummy Destiny and her land are caught in a violent cycle: the relentless, suffocating absence of water followed by destructive, overwhelming abundance.

Her story, amplified by ZDF and supported by the community empowerment focus of “I Lead Climate Action,” serves as a powerful call to action.
It urges the world to recognize the specific challenges faced by women like Mummy Destiny and to include their vital voices and grassroots expertise in the global effort to combat climate change.

Her farm, much like her spirit, is constantly battling the impossible choice between the drought’s thirst and the flood’s drowning a daily fight for survival where climate justice is paramount.

Oladosu Adebola