Stakeholders hail Presidential assent on Great Green Wall Bill

The bill as passed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan has formerly establish the National Agency for the Great Green Wall for the implementation of the provisions of the convention on the Great Green Wall programme in Nigeria, management of drought, desertification and afforestation control measures and related matters. The agency is to also help […]

The bill as passed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan has formerly establish the National Agency for the Great Green Wall for the implementation of the provisions of the convention on the Great Green Wall programme in Nigeria, management of drought, desertification and afforestation control measures and related matters.
The agency is to also help safeguard the environment, ensure food security, reduce unemployment and poverty, protect citizens in the affected parts from vagaries of weather, reduce strife and criminality, ensure sustainable livelihood and avert a major catastrophe in the near future.
Daily Trust recalls that desertification affects an area of about 393, 168 square kilometer which is about 43 per cent of the total land area of Nigeria.
Senator Ali Ndume speaking on the need for the agency said drought had become a frequent problem in the country.
Senator Banabas Gemade said the agency would ensure that government pays constant attention to the issue of desertification and drought.
Ali Shehu, an environmentalist noted that the issue of an agency to implement the Nigeria’s component of the Great Green Wall (GGW) project was overdue. “We are the country that initiated the project but other countries such as Senegal are already benefiting from it but we are still discussing how to establish an agency,” he said.
Shehu said that the implementation of the GGW would change the entire northern landscape. “The project has the capacity to revive the degraded land, rehabilitate those chased away from their land due to sand dune and water scarcity.”
Dr James Adeniyi of the Green Advocate, a non-governmental organisation campaigning for green initiatives said that the signing of the bill into law was President Goodluck’s parting gift to Nigeria.
 “An agency is needed for Nigeria to benefit from the regional programme. We cannot say it is late, we are happy and it is better late than never. My prayer is that the agency should hit the ground running, there is no time and there is so much to do,” Adeniyi added.
 Hamzat B. Lawal, Chief Executive, Connected Development [CODE] CODE, a non-governmental organisation that works and empowers people in marginalised communities across Africa, said the concept of establishing the GGW agency emanated from an African Union (AU) Convention adopted in 2007 and endorsed by Nigeria in 2010.
“The drought and desertification as well challenges of creating alternative sources of livelihoods across the Sahel and Sahara region of the continent are some of the problems captured in the objective of the programme. 
Climate change is one of the world’s most formidable challenges, posing serious threat to global stability in view of its negative impact on the physical, biological and social environment.
Nigeria lost about 2,168 square kilometres of range and cropland each year, thereby inducing forced migration, rural poverty and social conflicts. 
The 11 frontline states where this project is expected to be implemented namely – Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Yobe are dominated with about 90 per cent of the cattle population, about two thirds of the goats and sheep and almost all the donkeys, camels and horses found in the country.
The slow pace of enacting a legal framework to back the GGWSSI Convention now – “is only a clear indication of our fire brigade approach to almost everything. But we are happy an agency is in place and mandated by law to implement the programme,” Lawal said.