How Climate Change is crippling Checheyi women farmers, gets Initiative, German Media attention

The mounting climate crisis in Checheyi, a farming community tucked within the Kwali Area Council of Abuja, has drawn the attention of international and local advocates, from Germany’s ZDF media to Nigeria’s own I Lead Climate Action Initiative.

Their visit to Checheyi had a singular purpose: to spotlight and support the women and girls who stand at the frontline of climate change.

These women, though often unseen or unheard, have become the silent responders to a crisis that is wiping out farmlands, shrinking harvests, and threatening livelihoods.

At the centre of this renewed attention is the work of climate advocate Adenike Oladosu, founder of I Lead Climate Action.

Her grassroots movement has focused on empowering women in rural communities, especially those dealing daily with the twin extremes of devastating floods and prolonged drought, realities that now define Nigeria’s climate experience.

In the fields of Checheyi stood Mummy Destiny, one of many whose survival depends entirely on the land.

Surrounded by what remained of rice stalks that once promised food and income, she summed up her ordeal with heartbreaking simplicity.

“We no get water this year,” she lamented. “Rain no fall at all. This rice wey suppose grow well don dry finish.”

For families like hers, the shift has been brutal.

A planting season that once produced five bags of rice now struggles to yield two. Sometimes, she barely gets one and a half.

This sharp decline has ripple effects beyond food scarcity: many girls are withdrawn from school when harvests collapse and family income shrinks.

Adenike has consistently argued that excluding women from global climate decisions weakens the fight for climate justice. Mummy Destiny’s story reinforces that truth.

When asked what form of help she needed most, her answer was straightforward: “Make government help us with fertilizer.”

To her, fertilizer is not just farm input, it is a lifeline, a chance for her crops to survive the relentless heat.

But Checheyi’s climate challenges do not end with drought.

In a painful contradiction, Mummy Destiny nodded when asked if floods also affect her farmland.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

In one farming season, she is forced to battle both extremes: scorching dryness that kills her crops and sudden floods that wash away whatever is left.

Her daily reality is a cycle of survival, a fight between drought and flood.

Her experiences, now amplified through ZDF’s reportage and supported by the advocacy of I Lead Climate Action, present a compelling call to action.

They underscore the urgent need for policies that prioritize women farmers, elevate their voices, and provide real tools for adaptation.

For Mummy Destiny and many others in Checheyi, the climate struggle is not an abstract global discussion, it is a daily battle for food, dignity, and a future worth fighting for.

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