Sustainability of Lake Chad Basin : Dev’t Strategies Under Scrutiny In Abuja

Common challenges affecting member countries of the Lake Chad Basin notably climate change and its devastating consequences, the bestial Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, abduction, highway robbery and cattle theft are expected to witness a new twist following the revision of their combat strategies. The 68th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Lake Chad Basin Commission held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, yesterday November 28, 2022 to evaluate what has been done thus far and proffer innovative and workable solutions for an efficient management of the zone and its shared water resources, preservation of the ecosystems and promotion of regional integration, peace, security and development.  
Yesterday’s ministerial conclave was preceded by a three-day experts meeting grouping Focal Points of the Lake Chad Basin Commission from Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic and Libya, who brainstormed and came up with proposals on how to contribute to the proper functioning of the Commission and on the security situation in the Lake Chad Basin. These included notably adopting the 2023 Work Programme and Budget to the tune of about FCFA 17 billion and the Commission’s audit reports among others.
The diagnosis of the Lake Chad Basin as presented by experts suggests that it is an area whose fragility has been aggravated by the combined effects of the impact of climate change and unsustainable human activities. These activities have reduced the capacity of Lake Chad and its resources to sustainably support the more than 40 million people who depend on it for their livelihoods, thereby increasing poverty and general insecurity in the region. This explains why speakers notably the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Ambassador Mamman Nuhu and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Engr Suleiman H. Adamu who is Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, unanimously agreed that there is need to handle the causes and not the consequences of what the region is facing.  The complex and multifaceted challenges facing the world in general and the Sahel region with abundant and erratic rainfall, intense and frequent droughts and flood notwithstanding, they all agreed that there is still hope for growth, security and prosperity. Like the...