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| President Buhari and the UNESCO chief, Irina Bokova, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday. Photo: Akinola Oladokun |
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday charged the “rich countries” to save the Lake Chad from going into extinction due to adverse effects of climate change.
The President made the appeal while receiving the Director-General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ms Irina Bokova, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, warned that the failure to regenerate the Lake Chad will lead to another round of migration by people living in the areas.
The President, 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.
He said: “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, mobilize 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.”
He commended UNESCO’s 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 require immediate and urgent response from international organisations such as UNSECO to provide infrastructure, health and education for the people in the area.
