The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has said that the North East Stabilisation and Development Master Plan, (NESDMP) is devised to fulfil its mandate on protection of environment’ as one of its eleven key pillars.
BusinessDay reports that the protection of environment is categorised into Natural Ecology Conservation, Protection of Species and Ecological Communities, Environmental Protection, Biodiversity, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, and Waste Management.
Speaking on behalf of the Commission, Mohammed Goni Alkali, Managing Director, NEDC, who attended 3rd Annual International Forum on the Development of the Lake Chad Basin, declared that theme, “Enhancing Local Governance and Social Cohesion for Socio-Economic Development, and Food Security in Changing in the Lake Chad Region” held in N’Djamena was apt and timely.
Alkali, accompanied with his entourage, visited the Lake Chad Basin Commission Headquarters, LCBC at N’Djamena, Chad where the delegation met with Mamman Nuhu, Executive Secretary of the Commission, who is also the Head of Mission Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
While speaking with Nuhu, Alkali emphasised that the LCBC’s strategies for recovering the lake Chad Basin were similar to those of the NEDC in the recovery of the North-East region as contained in the master plan.
He said, the North-East Development Commission was intensifying the sustainable implementation of programmes tailored towards specific needs of the Six States in the region, supplementing humanitarian interventions and disaster support.
Alkali noted that the Northeast presents a compelling case for environmental concern due to its vast landmass, desertification, pollution, and climate change, as well as the shrinking of Lake Chad, ungoverned spaces, insurgency, and attendant fragility.
He noted that this fragility undermined food security and security of lives and property, saying “Agriculture and trade, the two most important livelihood activities sustaining the region, have been greatly undermined.”
He added, “The region’s heightened herdsmen-farmers conflict is largely ascribable to environmental degradation, Lake Chad’s recession, and human-induced activities such as mining, deforestation, irrigation, and dam constructions, it is argued.
“In light of the aforementioned issues, the North East Development Commission, NEDC, has continued to disseminate its North East Stabilization and Development Master Plan to Development Partners globally for effective implementation.
“The NEDC views the LCBC as a strategic partner in the quest to actualise its developmental programmes as the regional body’s activities strongly impact on the States of the North East,”he noted.
Responding, Mamman Nuhu said, “We certainly have a lot to do together, so at our technical level we will come up with recommendations on how we can work together and form stronger partnership, in order to pitch up the affected period already under Prolac which is called (in support of MCRP) it is called Prolac in all the other countries except Nigeria where it is in support of MCRP and where we have been working closely with all the others, where we have the regional help.”
Nuhu also pointed out that there is a window for everybody in terms of the 9 pillars out of the 40 strategic objectives of the regional stablization strategy, every body can come in with a plan.
“The only limitation we have is funding otherwise it is an excellent plan and it is adaptive. It is also inline with the Lake Chad Basin Commission Regional Stabilization Strategy which was developed in the year 2018,” he said.
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