By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
There was a mild drama yesterday when the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura presented the environmental audit reports on the drying-up of the Lake Chad to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.
The President expressed disappointment that the report presented to him by the Auditor General of the Federation did not reflect the $5 million feasibility study carried out by a team of experts under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He said: “I have to digress here based on personal knowledge of this. I saw an article in a journal in 1978 that a professor in the University of London in 1925 had foreseen what we are just seeing.
I handed over the article to Obasanjo and I understand that Obasanjo took the initiative sometimes ago, it is on record that he is the only Nigerian that has presided over the country for more than 11 years.
“He gave $5 million to the study, and the study was that unless some of the rivers from the Central Africa Republic are diverted to empty into Chad Basin, Lake Chad will dry up.
I understand that this report which was sponsored by Nigeria has been submitted. I am a bit disappointed that in the speech of the Auditor-General, there was no mention of this report, whether my own report was correct: that $5 million was given.
“One of the recommendations was that at the time the report was submitted , the cost of diverting one of the rivers to empty into Lake Chad would be between $13 billion and $15billion. I will like the Auditor-General to comment on this, whether they have received this report or the Ministry of Water Resources. I think this government will like to see this report and see how we can ask our foreign friends how they can help us.
“This is because if that river is diverted to empty into Chad Basin, I think it will affect at least, two million Nigerians and another two million from Cameroon, Chad and Niger to resettle and perhaps that will help us to stop Boko Haram around that area. This is because once we identified the enormous number of people there and their activities, we have to check desertification there.”
Dissatisfied with Ukura’s explanation, the President asked that someone should interpret what he meant, and later asked the Executive Secretary of the LCBC, Ambassador Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, to give his side of the story.
Sequel to this, President Buhari called on members of the National Assembly to expedite action on the Lake Chad Water Charter.
“I am aware that the Lake Chad Basin water charter which was adopted by the Heads of States and Government summit on April 30th 2012 has not been approved by the National Assembly.
“I will urge our National Assembly to domesticate this all important Lake Chad Basin water charter,” he said.
The President said the country was committed to leading the war against insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin and would not waver in its support to the commission.
