Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has called for international cooperation for effective delivery of economic stability and peace, as well as for containing the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Region.
Osinbajo made the call while declaring open the First International Forum on the Development of the Lake Chad Region on Monday, April 11, 2022 at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.
According to the Vice President, the synergy between countries and stakeholders across the region and the Sahel are the key actions that will determine the speed of the interventions there.
Happening live at ICC:
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON receiving briefing on the Ministry’s activities at the FMHADMSD Pavilion of the FIRST ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAKE CHAD BASIN pic.twitter.com/Phw6PySjg7— Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs (@FMHDSD) April 11, 2022
“There is a need for international cooperation and collaboration, especially as we have seen in the domain of military action—and we’ve seen this work for cross border security interventions, especially for terrorism situations in that neighbourhood.
“All of the successes in our fight against terrorism exemplify what we can achieve working together.
“We therefore must continue to build on this spirit of cooperation in other areas of intervention and forge even stronger ties for sharing information and lesson from our different experiences.”
Shrinking Lake
Prof. Osinbajo pointed out that the Lake Chad, which at the height of its glory, was one of Africa’s largest natural deposits, covering 25,000 square kilometres, and providing water to over 30 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad—the four countries surrounding the Sahel has shrunk to about 2000 square kilometres.
He said that the huge economic value of the lake included fishing, agricultural productivity, health and security.
“Today, Lake Chad has shrunk disastrously to barely 2000 square kilometres, a case of the devastating impact of climate change on natural resources.
“This sharp drop in size and decrease in water levels has led to a chain of catastrophic events, including the impairment of the capacity to deliver food, health, and security to its population, resulting first in economic instability and downturn in agricultural productivity and subsequently in the festering insecurity all around the Sahel in many cases in the violent contests for food, water and pasture.
“The insecurity in the Sahel region has spun off another crisis—a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions. Over 23million residents and citizens of the four countries are displaced currently.”
PROLAC Approach
Vice President Osinbajo described the Lake Chad Region Recovery and Development Project, PROLAC, intervention in the region as an inspired approach, focusing on investment to support regional coordinating and crisis monitoring, and connectivity and agricultural livelihoods.
He said the interventions “Are rightly expected to address the underlying fragility and the acute humanitarian and forced displacement crisis in the four countries.”
While noting progress that has been made in the security situation in the Lake Chad Region, Prof. Osinbajo said much remains to be done in addressing the drivers of the insecurity, stating that every opportunity to improve must be taken.
“One of the things that the crisis has affected is social cohesion within and around many of the communities.
“As we rebuild the physical structures within these areas, we should be mindful of the need to foster peaceful coexistence and restore the social fabric of those societies.
“For without sustainable peace, we are limited in how much we can attract the kind of investments necessary for the growth we need to fulfil the needs of our populations.”
Active-Participant
While assuring the forum that the Nigerian government would be an active participant in turning its recommendations into actions, Prof. Osinbajo said that the results and recommendations from the forum were to be transmitted to the various governments to guide policy making and strategic decisions that need to be taken in the short and long term related to the development of the region.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Mamman Nuhu said that the two-day forum was organized as part of the implementation of the PROLAC.
“It is a platform that brings together high-level international and local stakeholders to facilitate exchanges on the progress in the implementation of PROLAC; to deepen conversations and harmonization of existing national and regional initiatives and strategies and to enable planning of new initiatives for closer co-operation to enhance stabilization in the Lake Chad Region,” Nuhu stated.
Double Burden
The Managing Director of North East Development Commission, Mohammed Alkali pointed out that the area around Lake Chad has borne the double burden of climate change and forced displacement over several years.
“Latest estimates show that the region hosts 2.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons, most of them children.
“This forced displacement crisis has added pressure on host communities around the region.
“Despite the Lake Chad potential of being the driver of development in West Africa, the Lake Chad area is being challenged by multiple and inter-related drivers of conflicts and fragility.
“The Boko Haram insurgency alone has affected over 23 million people alone.”
Alkali said that Nigeria’s inclusion in the PROLAC is premised on the fact the ongoing World Bank finance, multi-sectoral recovery project being implemented in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe has a similar purpose to regional projects in terms of social cohesion, livelihood, restoration of services and reconciliation.
Among others who spoke at the opening of the forum were the World Bank Country Representative in Nigeria Shuhbam Chaudhuri, Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum and Governor of Far North Region of Cameroon, Mr Midjiyawa Bakari, who spoke in French and Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu.
PIAK
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