Agency pledges more afforestation activities to curb challenges of climate change

The Director-General, National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Dr Yusuf Maina-Bukar, has pledged more commitments to afforestation activities to curb the challenges of climate change in Nigeria.

Maina-Bukar gave the pledge while addressing newsmen to mark his first anniversary in office, on Tuesday in Abuja.

“Since the inception of the agency, afforestation and restoration activities have been at the heart of its activities.

“We have, therefore, focused on implementing afforestation and reforestation activities as well as land restoration and sustainable land management practices, and we have made notable achievements,” he said.

Maina-Bukar listed some of the achievements to include: establishment of shelter belts, woodlots, orchards and more recently, institutional planting, social forestry and farm forestry. Others, he said, were marketable gardens and largescale restoration of degraded lands to ameliorate the challenges of the environment in the affected communities.

“At the core of the Nigerian component of the Great Green Wall initiative is reversing desertification, degradation of land and the mitigation of the effects of climate change in the 11 frontline communities,” he said.

According to the directorgeneral, the communities were in Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa States.

He said that during his one year in office, the agency had been able to provide job opportunities for youths and women in rural communities, especially in the areas of training on land management technique and forest planting, among others.

The Acting Director, Department of Planning Policy and Coordination, NAGGW, Mrs Habibah Ibrahim, commended the director-general for his support to the staff members of the agency.

“This has made our jobs easier and I urge him to continue to listen to us.

She also commended Maina-

Bukar for his passion for the assignment before him, saying that this could help in driving the nation’s economy to success.

Mr Sotade Olayinka, Convener, Initiative for Ethics and Value Reorientation, a civil society organisation (CSO), lauded his organisation’s partnership with the agency, under the leadership of the director-general.

He urged the director-general to continue to operate an open door policy, assuring of more successes in his assignment. (NAN)

ING is treasonable, aberration - Sen Nnamani

By Christiana Ekpa

Former Governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke

Nnamani has berated the proponents of Interim National Government (ING) saying that it is treasonable and an affront to the sensibility of Nigerians.

Senator Nnamani stated that ING is absurd and has no place in the modern day democratic rule submitting that those behind the plot are enemies of Nigeria.

He stated: “the presidential election has been conducted and a winner has been declared.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2023. ING is a needless distraction.”

Nnamani who is the current Senator representing Enugu East in the Senate reiterated that “Asiwaju will be sworn in on May 29, 2023 and he will hit the ground running”.

Nnamani believes that Tinubu will not deviate from his avowed commitment to the programmes of Social Protection, national transformation and restructuring.

Nnamani, a contemporary of Tinubu as Governors in the 1999 set is optimistic that a Tinubu led administration will address Critical Infrastructural development, Youth Unemployment and Youth Bulge, Women empowerment as well as the challenges facing the girl-child.

The former governor predicted that a Tinubu led government will give priority to budget enhancements needed to address complex issues in the Health, Education , Social Service sectors including portable drinking water and environmental sanitation.

He expressed optimism that the forthcoming administration will rejuvenate International recognitions and awareness that will attract other nations to invest in Nigeria and consequently, turn the nation’s economy around.

He therefore enjoined Nigerians across the divide to support the incoming administration which he hopes will be a government of national unity where no section of Nigeria will be marginalized or shortchanged in the scheme of things.

Senator Chimaroke Nnamani MD, FACOG Chairman, Senate Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa/NEPAD.