Tinubu committed to completing green wall project – Shettima

Vice President Kashim Shettima Friday said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to completing the Great Green Wall project spanning 11 northern states.

Shettima, who spoke during the maiden commemoration of the Great Green Wall Day at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said it was a campaign promise and it would be kept.

He said, “The completion of the Great Green Wall was a promise made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his campaign manifesto because the cost of doing otherwise threatens our collective existence. We are, therefore, pleased to share that this inaugural Great Green Wall Day is both an exercise in demonstrating our commitment to this initiative and an act of self-preservation.”

The vice president added that the changing climate evident in extreme temperatures, drying rivers, endangered wildlife and thinning forests, has made the green wall an emergency rescue operation.

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He, therefore, called on Nigerians to invest in the actualization of the “transformative initiative.

The event was marked by the symbolic planting of trees by the First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, the vice president and the Director General of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Dr. Yusuf Bukar.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Bukar said the agency was transforming Nigerian dry lands through afforestation, reforestation, provision of alternative sources of cooking and energy use.

The National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), under the Federal Ministry of Environment, was established by Act of Parliament in 2015, to pursue the vision of the African Union and its Heads and State of Governments when they adopted and launched the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) in 2007. The initiative covers 22 African countries.