By Abdullahi Khairalla
Growing up in Maiduguri, a city highly prone to desertification, raises many concerns about my environment and the impending mishap.
Scientists have already concluded that tree planting and vegetation are the two most effective and quick measures to ending and halting the looming catastrophe (desert encroachment).
Tackling this ecosystemic malaise lies with the governments (state actors), private sector, individuals and communal efforts to arrest the menace.
On the part of the government, I think urgent action is required for state legislation compelling any person who fells a tree to plant two in its place and coming up with stringent disciplinary measures to punish a defaulter.
The “Tree Planting Approach” is of great significance to Nigeria, whose northern borders are directly on the path of their ecological holocaust.
The country has been losing more than a kilometre a year to this scourge for several decades, per Jibunoh’s finding.
Green vegetation seen ten, twenty or thirty years back has vanished. Rivers, Lakes and other water courses are being lost. The most tragic is the shrinking of lake Chad which now hosts less than half of its volume of water a few decades ago.
Of the $42 billion lost to desertification yearly, Africa accounts for two-thirds of the losses incurred annually, as per the statistics released by the UN.
Northern Nigeria should develop a regional approach towards preventing the region from the shackles of climatic disasters. The effects of this problem (desert encroachment) are not philosophical, but we literally feel its adverse impacts on our lives.
Most importantly, at the level of individuals like me, awareness creation is the cornerstone of our responsibility, while the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations can help in no small measure, particularly in the areas of partnership and bridging gaps between the community and the state actors in the ongoing fight against the dreaded threat to mankind.
On a macro scale, the Africa Union should also strive to devise an African response to the time bomb. If Israel could do wonders and reduce the threat to its bare minimum, we can follow suit because wherever there is the will, there is always a way. Of course, all we need is the will across the board.
THIS ARTICLE IS OF HIGH EXPLANATION, STATING THE CONSEQUENCES AND THE WAY OUT DESERT ENCROACHMENT THROUGH TREE PLANTING. GOOD EFFORT COMR. ABDULLAHI KHAIRALLAH. APPLAUSE TO YOUR UNDOUBTED EXPOSITORY ESSAY. NICE WRITE-UP.