**1. Introduction**

Global warming and climate change have dominated conferences, seminars, and discourses for several decades in almost all parts of the earth. This is because several destructive atmospheric, weather, and climatic conditions such as inundation by water, absence or inadequate rainfall, and rising temperatures are being attributed to them [1]. As a result, several studies are being provided to critically look at how these extreme events relate to the duo. Some of these studies on the continent of Africa that have tried to understand the rainfall cycle and pattern include [2–19] amongst others. Those on the trend of temperature include but are not limited to [20–22]. The findings of these studies have generally not been definite and have

resulted in diverse opinions and views on the relationship between climate variability and change on one hand and drought and temperature on the other. One of such opinions is that drought that has occurred and may likely occur in the Sahel Region of West Africa is an indicator of climate change. To the proponents of this thought, its long history of occurrence and the probability of reoccurrences in the future are enough evidence [23–25]. In contrast to these arguments are those that argue that though the occurrences of drought and fluctuations in temperature seem unusual in some years and decades past, they generally have not deviated from the long-term probabilities and climate of the area. Olatunde [26, 27] argued that the droughts that have occurred and persisted in the Sahelian part of Africa should be taken as part of the region's climate. This argument is especially cogent when the definition of climate change and/or discontinuity as identifiable changes in the average temperature, precipitation, and wind pattern that persists for a long period typically decades or longer [28] or an abrupt and permanent change in the mean values of these variables during the period of record [29, 30] taken into consideration and the fact that wet periods consistently alternated with the drought periods in most sub-areas of the region. These arguments as well as the issue of limited years of available data suggest the constant need for studies of this nature especially in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Nigeria. This study intends to ascertain if the lack or inadequate rainfall and change in average temperature imply a change in the climate of the area under study.
