Vice President Kashim Shettima and the First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu yesterday joined Nigerians to commemorate the inaugural Great Green Wall (GGW) Day celebration.
The duo performed a symbolic planting of trees at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The vice president, in his keynote address, said: “The world as we know it has been changing. Our temperatures are becoming extreme. Our rivers are drying up. Our wildlife has become endangered and our forests are thinning out.
“We are not only at the mercy of a world with inadequate green landscapes, but we are also forced to migrate towards greener pastures. The frightening reality is why we are gathered here today; this is what has inspired the GGW project.
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“We are the silver lining in this search for a green and benign world; one that guarantees food security and prevents climate-induced migration.’’
Shettima recalled that Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Environment, took up the challenge to partake in the Pan-African mission to save the world.
He said: “I appeal to all of us to see this initiative as an emergency rescue operation. We inherited a dream that we cannot afford to relegate because doing so is not even an option.
“Our predecessors were aware of the danger ahead; and the burden is upon us now to pursue this mission as a life-saving mission and we must carry all stakeholders along to achieve this”.
In his remark, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Alh. Ibrahim Idris, said the commemorative tree planting to mark the first edition of GGW Day shall as well be carried out simultaneously in all the eleven frontline states.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Director General of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, NAGGW, Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar, who unveiled a cutting-edge technology to be deployed in tackling Nigeria’s deforestation crisis, said NAGGW had since 2015 mitigated the impact of emerging climate change risks in the frontline states of Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa.
