‘The Great Green Wall project needs sustainable infrastructure for survival ’
Why did you stop your trip across the desert?As you may know, some of the countries bordering the Sahara desert have been in war for the past few years. It was, first of all, the coup in Niger and then subsequently the election and after the election we have been having problems with Mali. The […]
Why did you stop your trip across the desert?
As you may know, some of the countries bordering the Sahara desert have been in war for the past few years. It was, first of all, the coup in Niger and then subsequently the election and after the election we have been having problems with Mali. The war and fighting have extended to the countries bordering the Sahara deserts, because some of these expeditions have been monitored by our various embassies in all the countries. They have been monitoring the security situation and they have been briefing us more or less, saying to us that it’s still not safe to travel particularly in the deserts. So, it’s been a number of factors, the Arab and Mali crisis, crisis in Libya and until all these things are sorted out , it is going to be very difficult for us to engage in the desert anymore. But we are all ready, our equipment are there and our vehicles are there. Fortunately we are still getting the support particularly from Lagos State government that initiated the project with us, so we are still waiting for the war to end or subside before we go back on trips.
One of the reasons for the trips is to raise awareness on desertification. Looking back, what do you think has changed?
Well, before the various wars started, we had instituted a number of projects with the countries bordering the Sahara desert and carried out a lot of land reclamation projects with them and started a process of building a wall of tree projects to help stop of encroachment of the desert. We have also been involved in collaboration with some of the countries, particularly Niger.
A lot has changed but now with the war ravaging the whole area and we can’t even go to find out how the project we started are doing. So, it is difficult to tell, I’m only hoping that those war zones are carrying out some sustainable projects that will keep the whole thing going.
But back to your first question, it wasn’t just awareness, it was also sensitizing the people, also it has to do with the issue of advocacy because, as you know, the issue of desert encroachment and what follows which is desertification is not something one person, one organisation or even one nation can fight. It has to be a collective endeavour by all the parties and that is what we are trying to do, to get the countries to work in unison, to collaborate in the various projects we have designed to help them because if you start in your own locality like we have done in Kano State and Jigawa State, when these storm comes from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, you know it makes your own local endeavour useless, so that was the incentive behind the Desert Warrior initiatives.
You talked about tree planting. How does your campaign differ from the African Union led Great Green Wall (GGW) project?
Well, don’t forget that the GGW thing has been on the pipeline for more than 10 years, it was initially called the shelter belts and strangely enough I was a member of the commission when it was inaugurated by Obasanjo in Katsina many years ago. So, while the other countries are continuing particularly Senegal, they have done so well with their own projects, we have been going from one inauguration to another and it is getting to a point now where I am even confused though I am a member of the council now. The Vice President was kind enough to invite me to join in the council but like I said, there has been so many inauguration and apart from that, that ministry has suffered greatly because it is the only ministry I know in the country that has more than 10 ministers in 11 years. In this country anytime a minister is changed it’s like taking two steps forward and threes steps backwards and that hasn’t helped at all, at the moment I don’t even know what the situation is like.
Is the challenge of failing to get the GGW off the drawing board that of implementation or the design?
It’s a combination of many things. All the changes that are happening, you go from shelter belt to something else and now come to GGW anytime these changes occur, you tend to redesign, reprogramme and rearrange. All those things have not help in anyway and that is why I say it is a combination of the changes that are happening in not just the turnover in the ministry but also in the design and numerous documentation that are taking place.
Currently the President has approved N10 billion for the project, this is the second year running and nothing has been done, only plans to award contract for borehole and seedlings, so what is the problem?
I feel sorry for those that have been given the N10billion. I have not been involved in the disbursement of the money, so I am not in a position to comment on that, but that notwithstanding I am still a member of the council.
The money must have been disbursed to some institutions and I am yet to recall that. I have been to the Senegalese project twice. I went with Bala Mande when I was when he was a minister and subsequently I went on my own during one of our expedition across the Sahara desert. I saw a community based organisation where a community has been mobilized because it is a partnership you can’t go into ceremoniously planting of tree without putting any substantial infrastructure in place and I try to relate that to the council when we were inaugurated. This has got to be people’s project, a bottom up arrangement get the people involve, find a way of sensitizing them let them become not just part of it but let them own and with that you can push ahead and this is what happens in Senegal. I am not saying we should copy Senegal, No, because you always have to design something that will work with your community. Community differs because of either culture or traditional or religious differences so just like what we are doing in Kano and Jigawa, we have to design.
Efforts to implement the GGW will need research but we have not seen any collaboration with the academia?
No, there have to be a lot of collaboration, if you look at the states that have attended some mileage in tackling degradation, in tackling environmental issue that has to do with climate change, global warming they have always done it in collaboration with either institutions or private organisation and academia. In my own little project, I involved the academia and Lagos State have made tremendous strive in the area of checking degradation issue they had involved me and my organisation, it is a collaboration, it is a partnership and a bottom up arrangement and you cannot do a bottom up arrangement without involving the community.
In fact you have to also involve the press, to some extent not just inviting them, but holding seminars for them, holding workshop because they are a major partner in the area of sensitization. You cannot do sensitization without the press, so it a collaboration that involves the academia, the media, the institutions and the children in our secondary schools and the university are also very crucial because they are the future, they are the ones to carry this whole thing to the next generation.
Can you tell us about your own wall of trees that your organisation started during your tour of the desert?
Yes, the wall of tree project is something similar to what the Israelis did, the whole of Israel used to be desert, they used that same system. But like I used to say, I didn’t use the system to replicate here, I have to redesign to suit our own local situation but the wall of tree is a wall of tree programme that is done in catchment areas if you have what is called the early warning system. That help you determine wind flow and the area that are likely to be encroach by the desert. You station or design your wall of tree in different segments or different areas in order to check that. It involves a lot of engineering system, but not just that you also in using the normal energy trees and the neem trees that is especially in some areas in North. you must combine that with agricultural and medicinal trees that are relevant to communities because if you are going to involve them in participating, you must give them some kind of incentive which again is close to what is been done in Senegal.
In which country or state is your Wall of Trees currently?
We started in Kano and then we extended it to Jigawa and we even went beyond our border and started it in Niger Republic and we did a lot of work there.