The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, said attention would be focused on visiting areas affected by desertification in order to encourage them buy into the federal government programmes of combating desertification and land degradation.
He made this known during a familiarity visit to the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW)
Odusote further emphasised that, there should be advocacy visit to the states and locations where these activities take place for them to be more enlightened and educated on the devastating effects of desertification and land degradation.
She said the federal government is putting efforts through the Agency to discourage activities that would further degrade the lands.
Responding, the Director General Dr, Bukar Hassan, said that emphasis is being laid on advocacy visit to state governments that are affected for a better understanding of the programme and for a stronger synergy between the agency and the stakeholders.
He added that, when the management embark on the advocacy visit, it would make the state Chief Executives to buy into programmes and also collaborate in many areas for the success of the programme .
Dr Hassan stated that, monitoring and evaluation is one of the vital tool the agency is adopting to enable them assess what have been done so far and what step need to be taken.
He said Forest Guards would be reinforced to be able government safe guard all the plants and the structures that have been put in place in all the locations. Desertification and land degradation has affected eleven states in Nigeria, these states includes, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kastina, Borno, Bauchi, others are Gombe, Jigawa, Adamawa, Kano, and Yobe.
