Children and Women of the Great Green Wall

The GGW according to former President Goodluck Jonathan is an expression of the country’s commitment for enhanced environmental management, and thus overcome the problems of desertification. “It is a strategy adapted by African leaders supported by the international community and development partners, to fast track the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), roll back poverty and address the specific risks and vulnerabilities in our dry lands.
Our desire to enhance the economic transformation of our great nation, and improve the livelihoods of the citizenry requires that we address the risks and vulnerabilities in the drought and desertification affected States. This is what we intend to achieve by coming together to implement this programme,” Jonathan said during the official flag-off of the programme in Nigeria.
In the last five years, government had used different platforms to implement the programme and had also maintained a sustained awareness on it at the grassroots.
No wonder therefore that women and students as well as pupils of various schools in the participating local government areas in Bauchi State have gradually caught the grove and have established themselves as the backbone of the programme.
In Gambaki, Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi, students of the Gambaki Central Primary school, Gambaki Upper Primary school and Gambaki Senior Secondary School have formed an environment club to contribute to the programme by planting trees as well as working in the community orchid to water and tend for the seedlings planted for onward movement to the field.
The clubs made up of mostly children between the ages of 6 and 15 have taken their activities beyond the shores of their school as they now participate actively in preparing the nurseries, sorting out seeds, planting and watering the plants.
Abdul Maliki Ismail, a JSS student at the Gambaki Junior Secondary School said that his love for plants made him join the club.
Eight year-old Ismail said his passion for trees was borne out of his geography lesson where he was taught the importance of trees. “We are living almost in the desert and if we continue to plant trees, our situation will get better.”
Ismail enjoined other students in the north to form clubs and embrace the programme as it has the potentials of reversing the encroaching desert.
Baratu Sani, a 13 year old SS1 student and a member of the club noted that she and her colleagues were working towards protecting the environment from desertification.
According to her, the motivation to be an active participant in tree planting programme was based on her belief that in the nearest future, she and other members of the community would reap the benefit of their labour.
Just like the children, the women were not left out of the programme implementation as there are allocated space within the Orchid to plant vegetables which are in turn sold and the proceed shared among them.
In Gambaki, the women organised themselves into what is known as Gambaki Hikima, a group of dedicated women whose work include supporting the men in caring for the plants.
Mariama Sani, the women group leader said that women are part of the community and would not want to be left behind as government tries to find solution to the ravaging desertification that had made life difficult for them.
“Apart from supporting the work the men are doing, we water the seedlings, keep the orchid tidy and plant our own little vegetable by the side. We sell them and use the money to carter for our families,” she added.
Alhaji Sule Sale Yakubu, Director of Forestry, Bauchi State said that part of the programme include empowering rural women in participating communities and that is why the orchids were established within the communities to enable them take ownership.
“The programme is designed in such a way that women will have their economic power enhanced through the planting of vegetables and other related crops that they can sell while tending for the trees,” he said.
He also said that the state had concluded arrangement to host a competition for schools in the benefitting local government areas where successful school and students would be greatly rewarded by the state government.
As the children and women struggle to keep the Great Green Wall dream alive, the words of former President Jonathan during the launch of the programme comes to mind: “We acknowledge that the challenges ahead in our dry-lands are daunting, but it is our duty and responsibility as government to make a difference in the well-being of our people.  Our belief is that the Great Green Wall Programme will assist us in combating desertification, and land degradation.  And ultimately it will be a vehicle in our determination to eliminate poverty, and create wealth for our people. The project will also help reduce unemployment and rehabilitate over 2 million hectares of degraded land and improve agricultural productivity.
(With contributions from Larai Daze of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Abuja.)