The shrinking Lake Chad, receding River Niger and the struggle for land makes it imperative for the government to quickly address the ticking time bomb called food insecurity staring the country in the
face; BENJAMIN UMUTEME reports.
Fifty years ago, when the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) delivered a report to the American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association for the fossil fuel industry many took globally especially took it with a pinch of salt.
The report titled Sources, Abundance, and Fate of Gaseous Atmospheric Polluters is one of the earliest attempts by the industry to grapple with the impacts of rising CO2 levels, which Stanford’s researchers warned if left unabated “could bring about climatic changes” like temperature increases, melting of ice caps and sea level rise.
The result is obvious for all to see, rising sea levels with its attendant effects, increasing unpredictability of the weather, shrinking water bodies, drought, and desertification amongst others. However, the worse hit by the effect of this is the Lake Chad!
Historical perspective
The lives of people and natural resources in northern Nigeria and the seven other African countries that rely on Lake Chad for survival are under serious threat as the climate change challenge facing the Lake
worsens.
The shrinking of Lake Chad, which provides food for over 40 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad and the disappearing natural resources of the water, has become a global calamity. This has
led to displacement of millions of families that has relied on the water body for the survival of their families.
Regarded as one of the largest water bodies in Africa, the Lake Chad is fast losing its traction. The water level and size has shrunk by massive 90 per cent compared to what it was in the 1960s.
Its surface area has decreased from a peak of 25,000 square kilometers to approximately 1,350 square kilometres today.
Experts say there is already a 60 per cent decline in fish production, degradation of pasturelands, leading to shortage of dry matter estimated at 46.5 per cent in certain places in 2006, reduction in the
livestock population, and threat to biodiversity, Food and Agriculture.
This has driven the population around the Basin downwards towards the vegetative areas of the North Central and Southern part of the country.
Even the River Niger has not been spared in this onslaught. In April, this year, Council of Ministers of the Niger Basin Authority in Abuja, Executive Secretary, Dr Abderahim Hamid, expressed worry over the continuous shrinkage of the River Niger, linking it to the impact of climate change.
Experts at the conference noted that for the first time since 1985, the River Niger completely dried up in Niamey, Niger Republic, due to climate change.
According to them, this has led to its reduction from two million Square kilometres to about 1.5 square Kilometres.
The farmers, herders’ dimension
At the high level meeting of International Conference on Lake Chad in Abuja, earlier this year, President Muhammadu Buahri maintained that the dwindling fortunes of the Lake Chad had contributed to the upsurge of terrorist activities as well as the constant clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
The President also stated that the shrinkage of Lake Chad was responsible for the instability in West Africa, noting that youths were joining terrorist groups because of lack of jobs and difficult
economic conditions.
According to President Buhari, the Lake Chad region was formerly an “oasis in the desert,” a hub of economic activities and food security and that farmers, fishermen, herdsmen and traders were happy because business was booming, and that the happiness and contentment contributed to the stability of the sub-region.
He said: “Unfortunately, today that is all history. The ‘oasis in the desert’ is just a desert now, due to the drying up of the Lake Chad.
“This has resulted in dire consequences for our people as follows: Fish varieties are long gone, leaving the fishermen jobless. Farmers and herdsmen struggle over the little water left. Herdsmen migrate in search of greener pastures, resulting in conflicts. Our youths are joining terrorist groups because of lack of jobs and difficult economic conditions.”
An environmental analyst based in Abuja, Greg Odogwu, told Blueprint Weekend that the Fulani herdsmen threat requires an urgent solution, adding that if not quickly checked, Nigeria is likely to faces future food scarcity.
“Borno and Yobe states which used to be haven for farmers are now a shadow of themselves as farmers are afraid to go to their farms for fear of being attacked by insurgents.
And only recently, 12 farmers in Kalle village, Borno state, North-east Nigeria, were killed by Boko Haram terrorists,” he said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has described the level of violence in North-east Nigeria lately as “alarming,” noting that “with farmers becoming easy targets, they are afraid to cultivate their land
thus worsening the already grim food crisis in the region which has been devastated by insecurity.”
Even in the South, the situation is not much different. Farmers continue to lose their lives to herdsmen attacks on a daily basis. This is with its attendant food implications.
The Chair of Banking and Finance Department of the Nasarawa State University, Professor Uche Uwaleke, alluded to this while in a reply to inquiries from our correspondent.
“The fall in Q2 GDP figure relative to the previous quarter can be attributed Agriculture was particularly disappointing at just 1.19 percent, one of the lowest growth rates in recent times. The reason
for this is not far-fetched. The seemingly intractable herders, farmers’ clashes are partly to blame,” he said.
He cautioned that food scarcity loomed if the government did not take advantage of the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) properly and strategically aligned its food production system in order to make it
efficient and smart; by prioritizing quick yielding crops.
The climate change dimension
The effect of climate change on agriculture is undoubtedly enormous since it is solely dependent on prevalent weather conditions such as rainfall, sunshine, humidity etc for optimum production.
Climate change is fuelled by man’s activities one of which is conventional agriculture-which encourages massive clearing of land, heavy use of a agrochemical, and mono-cropping–further increasing the greenhouse gases level in the atmosphere.
Over the years, there has been noticeable decline in rainfall quantity and a change in the pattern thereby leaving farmers at the mercy of the elements. This has resulted largely in poor crop yield thereby worsening the already existing food crisis in the African continent.
Climate change has also been significantly linked to increase and modification of crop pest, which has led to massive destruction of farms in several cases.
Another dimension to the climate change challenge is the drying up of water-bodies that hitherto served as drinking source for herders, thereby forcing herders further down south in search of water and
pasture. This has fueled a lingering crisis between farming communities due to the constant conflict situations that occur, leading to needless loss of lives and properties.
The Coordinator, Organisation for the Nigerian Environment (OSNE), Angela Okoye, in a chat with our correspondent, insisted that climate change “poses a great treat to food security either through crop failure, destruction of farms by herder or the abandonment of farms by farming communities for fear of safety of their lives and properties.”
Global Rights’ perspective
At a recent stakeholders’ engagement on contextualising Nigeria’s water resources management in mining and energy policies, the Executive Secretary, Global Rights Nigeria, Ms. Abiodun Baiyewu, noted that “access to clean potable water is greatest threat to Nigeria’s national security.”
According to her, it is already tearing at the very fabric of our nationhood with the many conflicts it is facilitating.
The dramatic shrinking of Lake Chad in less than 40 years to 1/10th its size, the recent announcement of the shrinking of Goronyo Dam in Sokoto to 1/10th its size as well, the rapidly shrinking Kaduna River, River Niger, and even River Benue; the literal overnight disappearance of the Kara market waterfront in Lagos, are all ominous signs of the fate of this natural resource in Nigeria – and it is true that it is largely due to climate change.
Climate change comes at an inordinately great price for countries close to the equator, countries like Nigeria. The rapid drying up of our groundwater creating an arid belt in the North, the misplacement of water bodies resulting in flooding in other parts of the country, the loss of our rainforest and biodiversity and rise in temperature are crowding the little land we have for the prosperity of our teeming population.
Our arable landmass will not expand – or at least has not shown any sign of doing so. So, while climate change is drying up the soil and water bodies in the North, pushing populations and economies to the
Middle Belt of the country, flooding, erosion and the encroachment of the sea will push the population in the South to the Middle Belt as well. And it will be sooner than we think.
Changing the narrative
To address this downward slide, President Buhari admitted that there is urgent need for action to resuscitate it in order to save the lake from going into extinction. “We must treat the issues of Lake Chad with the urgency they deserve and show the needed political commitment towards reviving the lake.
“Together, let us share this mission of rescuing Lake Chad Basin with a renewed vigour, determination and international collaboration as our inaction or delay will continue to accelerate the deteriorating
standard of living of millions of our people with dire consequences on our continent and the World at large.
‘’The time to act is now. The time to bail out the region is now. The time to show our humanity is now.”
Countries that make up the Lake Chad Basin are proposing a very ambitious project that hopes to transfer water to the Lake Chad. This they believe will address the cascading effects of the shrinking Lake. However, it appears a mirage as many of these countries among the poorest globally would require at least $50 billion over a two decade period to actualise this.
Also, Niger Basin Authority Executive Secretary averred that promoting cooperation amongst member countries and contributing to improve the living conditions of the basin population through sustainable management of water resources is key to the development of the region.
Ms. Okoye, who is also an ActionAid trained agriculture budget tracker, noted that “it is the responsibility of the government to pay more attention to developing policies and systems aimed at mitigating climate change, while also helping communities’ adapt and build resilience as a means of ensuring food security in the region.”
Alluding to this line of thoughts, Odogwu said: “It is as clear as daylight that the one strategy that the government should be advised to undertake in order to ensure that food shortage is prevented this year is a frontal attack plan against the activities of the Fulani herdsmen.”
He further said: “When the Meteorological Agency released its annual rainfall prediction, it predicted early onset rainfall and early cessation in many parts of Nigeria, especially the northern part in 2017.
“It will not take a rocket scientist to tell us that when these farmers abandon food production, the country would go hungry. And we do not need professional statisticians to regale us with the scary
figures: The farms are being abandoned daily, and the barns are drying up. We are food-bleeding. And, with NiMet’s warning, I see scarcity around the corner.”
Food crises might not just be far away from Nigeria except and unless the government puts an end to rhetoric and tackles head-long the prevailing issues.
