President Muhammadu Buhari has urged rich countries to do
something urgent to save the Lake Chad from extinction before the people of the
area start creating problems for them. Buhari said this while receiving Irina Bokova,
director-general of UNESCO, in Abuja on Thursday.
According to a statement issued by Garba Shehu, presidential
spokesman, the president warned that the failure to regenerate the Lake Chad
would lead to another round of migration by the people living in the areas.
Buhari, who led seven ministers to an interactive meeting
with the UNESCO chief, said Nigeria and the other countries of the Lake Chad
Basin lack the billions of dollars required to channel water from the Congo
Basin into the lake to check its rapid depletion. “Those living in the Lake Chad region have suffered untold
hardship and displacement because of the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram
terrorists,” he said. ‘‘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.”
Buhari commended UNESCO for its support to Nigeria,
particularly on the ongoing rehabilitation work in the northeast 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.
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, health and environment.
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