Northern states display apathy towards GGW project

Effort by the federal government to fast track implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) programme in Nigeria may meet a brick wall as most of the frontline states are developing cold feet in meeting up with their obligations. An investigation by Daily Trust showed that most of the participating states do not have budgetary […]

Effort by the federal government to fast track implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) programme in Nigeria may meet a brick wall as most of the frontline states are developing cold feet in meeting up with their obligations.
An investigation by Daily Trust showed that most of the participating states do not have budgetary allocation for the project in their 2016 appropriations.
According to the national action plan for the implementation of the project in Nigeria, participating states which include Adamawa, Borno, Kano, Jigawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto and Yobe are expected to make land available for the planting of the Nigeria component of the wall of trees but unfortunately not many of the 11 states have done so.
According to Part V section 18(1) of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall Act No 3 of 2015, states are also expected to constitute or establish an implementation committee at the state, local government and community levels for the project but this also is still not in place in most states.
The Act also mandates states to make provision for the structure, operations and functions of the implementation committees within their states but this also is still yet to happen, the investigation revealed. 
In its 2016 appropriation, Katsina State has no allocation specifically stated for GGW in the bill. The Ministry of Environment as a whole was allocated N3,331,428,450.00.
However, a breakdown of the budget has some link to the project. Some of the provisions are as follows, ecological has the lion share with N3 billion; waste management, N185,000,000; drought and desertification N142,000,000; and planning, research and statistics, N4,428,450.
Similarly, Sokoto State has no appropriation for the project maintaining that it was only bound to land provision and the staff to man the project in the state.
Like Sokoto, there is no provision for the Great Green Wall project in Jigawa State’s 2016 budget. The state only budgeted N513 million for erosion control and afforestation shelter belt.
Also, there is no specific allocation for the Great Green Wall project out of the N135 billion budget proposed for 2016 in Bauchi State.
 In his budget breakdown presentation, the permanent secretary, Bauchi State Planning Commission, Mohammed Aminu Ibrahim, stated that the state only has allocation for water supply which got the sum of N7.3 billion representing 5.4 percent of the budget.
The budget has also not been explicit on allocations to other environment related issues like desert encroachment, erosion or other challenges brought about by climate change.
However, in Kebbi State, the Director, Forestry and State Desk Officer of Great Green Wall in the state Ministry of Environment, Alhaji Umar Bello Diggi, said the GGW in the state does receive allocation on yearly basis, but that it was not captured in the state’s budget.
The director said: “In the first year of the Great Green Wall flag-off, the state received the sum of N12 million from the federal government for plantation of seeds, payment of casual workers and procurement of seeds. In the second year, we received N10.1 million and two tractors were given to the state for easy planting and conveying of seeds to the plantation site.”
“We are yet to receive any funding from the state government, it is only the one from Great Green Wall Agency at the national level,” he added.
On its part, Gombe State government has earmarked one billion, three hundred and twenty million naira (N1,320,000,000,00) in the 2016 budget to address environmental challenges.
Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo stated this when he presented the budget to the state lawmakers.
He said in order to address environmental challenges, they are aligning their environmental plans with subsisting national programmes such as the Great Green Wall and the World Bank assisted national watershed and environment project.
Dankwambo said government should continue to encourage establishment of nurseries, wood plantations and roadside plantations to check desert encroachment.
A conservation expert, Duke Lucky, said that the aim of the programme would be defeated if the state government failed to take over its ownership.
“This is a great regional project that will bring succour to our brothers and sisters whose livelihood has been destroyed by desert encroachment. It will be unfortunate if states in the North fail to support the programme,” he said.
 The National Agency for the Great Green Wall said it has concluded plans to embark on an advocacy visit to all the participating states to get them to commit to the project.