Buhari’s uphill task as leader, Great Green Wall project

Worried by the unprecedented challenges of desertification faced by many African countries, especially along the Sahel, the African Union in 2007 launched the Great Green Wall, an initiative modelled to tackle desertification across the continent.  The initiative aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in Africa, especially the Sahel.  When completed, […]

Worried by the unprecedented challenges of desertification faced by many African countries, especially along the Sahel, the African Union in 2007 launched the Great Green Wall, an initiative modelled to tackle desertification across the continent. 

The initiative aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in Africa, especially the Sahel. 

When completed, according to projections, by 2030, it is expected to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land and create 10 million jobs. 

It is also expected to provide fertile lands for agriculture and natural vegetation for animal grazing.

In August, the then minister of environment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, announced that Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had been made the president of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW). He also disclosed that the country would host the Summit of Heads of States of member countries.

Abubabar said the GGW was aimed at restoring Africa’s landscapes and transform millions of lives in the regions, and the Sahel. 

He said Nigeria’s commitment towards addressing climate change and environmental degradation had earned her the post of the presidency of the pan-African agency and the right to host the Summit of Heads of States of the GGW countries

He said the decision was taken at the “7th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the PAGGW.

He added that the Council believed President Buhari was capable of taking the GGW delivery structure to a higher level if he became the chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of PAN-GGW; and it would be easier for the GGW programme to access about $5 billion as grant and $14billion soft loan available out there because of the respect the world has for him.

All the 11 countries that make up the GGW—Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan—support Nigeria’s leadership, he said.

However, in spite of the lofty gains mentioned by the former minister, many believe that Nigeria has a long way to go in putting its house in order and chart a course for others to follow in achieving its goal as the leader of the PAGGW.

Currently, the country is facing a serious challenge following the skyrocketing price of cooking gas. The development has led many Nigerians to shift their cooking needs to charcoal and firewood, which poses a new challenge for deforestation and desertification, which the GGW was set up to take care of.

President Buhari is assuming the leadership of the PAGGW when charcoal business in Nigeria has become lucrative.

Although charcoal export has been banned in Nigeria for some time now, sources in the industry told Daily Trust on Sunday that the business is still very much on track, adding “The only thing militating against the trade as it is today is the great demand within the country. Before you can prepare charcoal for export, businessmen in the country would have approached you for it. And if you can sell at a good price here, why bother yourself to export?

“Sincerely, I don’t envy President Buhari’s task as the president of the PAGGW. You can see that the price of cooking gas is on the increase on a daily basis. Except for the elite, majority of Nigerians, even the middle class (if there is still something like that) now support their gas with charcoal and firewood.” 

He said many people in the cities would go for charcoal while those in the suburbs and villages go for firewood, adding that the way forward for the president is to first work on stabilising the price of cooking gas before tackling the root cause of this business.

He also said that if nothing is done, deforestation and desertification would continue, the environment would suffer at the end of the day, and all of us would be the worse for it.

Stephen Aina, a senior conservation officer in the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) told Daily Trust on Sunday that Buhari’s leadership of the GGW was a wake-up call rather than a status of glamour. 

He said, “We can only hope that his directives, backed up with adequate resources and manpower, are translated into real work opportunities and on-the-ground evidence. 

“Our only hope in the face of an uncertain future, particularly with the almost 200 per cent hike in the cost of cooking gas, is to continue to plant trees. One could only have hoped that the presidency was able to defer the hike, if only in allegiance to the president’s new role on Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative. 

“Current hikes are antagonistic to the land degradation neutrality stance of the president since many more will resort to charcoal and firewood for domestic use. Even some elites who hitherto depended entirely on gas are now complementing domestic cooking with charcoal. It is that serious.

“Charcoal production is the largest force driving forest loss in Nigeria due to the expansion in both local and foreign demands. State governments have been helpless all along, except few that were able to put civic forest governance structures in place. Others have only decided to cash in on charcoal business to increase their internally generated revenues. 

“Currently, the country’s tree per capita stands at 1.1 trees.  It means there is only approximately one tree left for each individual in Nigeria. This is barely enough for the oxygen and carbon footprint offset and domestic cooking demands of millions of Nigerians. With this development, by the end of 2023, only half of the current population will have a tree to support their daily activities. Already, charcoal and firewood are also becoming expensive, an indication that the biomass in our forests and woodlands is fast diminishing.”

He explained that Nigerians need to see how important conservation investments into the environment would be. “The environment is our final arbiter and shock absorber when faced with temporarily difficult moments. Nigeria should develop plans to invest in massive social forest programmes to empower the rural poor and make President Buhari’s current role at the GGW memorable,” he said. 

Also speaking, Professor Nasiru Idris, the dean, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said, “There’s a big task before the Nigerian president as head of the GGW. The mandate of the project, especially within the Nigerian landscape, should be seen as a role model for the other GGW member states during the period under review. 

“Also, the presidency would have to work hard in addressing the problems of land degradation, food security, desertification, climate change, depletion of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity in Nigeria and other member states.

“The issue of restoring millions of hectares of degraded landscape for agricultural production within the landscape of the member states should be pursued. 

“All eyes will be on the president to see whether the country would be very strict on its policies on the indiscriminate destruction of forests for the production of charcoal, which leads to the depletion of forest resources and further causing climate change.”

“The country’s regulatory agency on the environment, the National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA), would have to work very hard during the two-year period in order to give the country a pass mark in the area of enforcement and prosecution of any person found wanting in charcoal production, without having a reforestation and rehabilitation plan for the area, from where charcoal would be derived or produced. Therefore, charcoal business in Nigeria during this period will be at a crossroad.” 

He further said many people would not respect the law because they know they could always find a loophole to enable them maneuver. 

“An average Nigerian is afraid of law; therefore, the Nigerian president, through the Federal Ministry of Environment, should direct the agency responsible for monitoring, enforcement and compliance to make sure that nobody is above the law. And they should hit the ground running with immediate effect in the area of charcoal production in the rural areas of the country,” he said.

In his acceptance speech as the leader of the PAGGW, President Buhari stated, “All things being equal, we shall strengthen our efforts to mobilise resources for the accelerated accomplishment of the Decennial Priority Investment Plan (DPIP) 2021-2030 and its concrete implementation action,” adding that the realisation of financial pledges that emerged as the outcome of the “One Planet Summit” held on January 11, 2021 in Paris, France, would be given utmost priority. 

The Minister of Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, also expressed optimism that with the unparalleled commitment of Mr President on addressing issues of climate change and desertification, coupled with the immense respect he commands within the international community, a lot would be achieved during his tenure.

She also said that within the period, Nigeria would work assiduously towards addressing the problems of land degradation, food security, desertification, climate change, depletion of the forest ecosystems and biodiversity in Africa, among others.