President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has urged rich countries to do something urgent to save Lake Chad from extinction, a situation scientists have attributed to the effects of climate change.
Receiving the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Ms Irina Bokova, in Abuja, President Buhari warned that failure to regenerate the Lake Chad would lead to another round of migration by people living in the area.
Buhari, who was in the company of seven ministers at an interactive meeting with the UNESCO chief, said Nigeria and the other countries of the Lake Chad Basin lacked the billions of dollars required to channel water from the Congo Basin into the lake to check its rapid depletion.
Senior Special Assistance to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement.
“Those living in the Lake Chad region have suffered untold hardship and displacement because of the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists. If there is no farming and fishing, they will dare the desert to migrate.
“Unless the developed countries make concerted efforts to complete the feasibility study, mobilise resources and technology to start the water transfer from the Congo Basin, the Lake Chad will dry up. The people will go somewhere and they will create problems for those countries,” the president told the visiting UN official.
President Buhari commended UNESCO’s support to Nigeria particularly on the ongoing rehabilitation work in the North East and reintegration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
He said the pathetic situation of IDPs requires immediate and urgent response from international organisations such as UNSECO to provide infrastructure, health and education for the people in the area.
Ms. Bokova, who commenced a week-long visit to West and Central Africa on August 6, said she was in Nigeria to strengthen the organisation’s programme in the areas of science and technology, gender and youth development, culture, water resources development, as well as health and environment.
By Mohammad Ibrahim
The problem of Lake Chad should be seen as an African problem. hence the solution must first start with African countries before we start seeking for external help. All countries in Africa must collaborate on how the large water body should be saved from extinction. Heaven helps those who help themselves.