BY Vivian Chime
Mahmood Abubakar, minister of environment, says President Muhammadu Buhari will assume the presidency of heads of state and governments of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAAGGW) later this year.
Abubakar disclosed this on Wednesday at a media briefing in Abuja.
The GGW is an African-led movement to be implemented in 11 countries — including Nigeria — with an ambition to restore degraded land and hold back the encroachment of the Sahara desert by growing 8,000km of vegetation that will stretch across the entire Sahel region.
Mahmood said the PAAGGW council of ministers believes Buhari is capable of taking the programme delivery to a higher level, as well as ensuring that the initiative can receive the necessary support from the international community.
He also said Nigeria will host the eighth PAAGGW ministers’ meeting, as well as the fifth summit of the heads of state and government of the GGW later this year.
“Last week, at the seventh ordinary session of the council of ministers of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAAGGW), the council adopted that Nigeria hosts the eighth ministers’ meeting of the PAAGGW later in the year, and that Nigeria hosts the fifth summit of the heads of state and government virtually in September 2021,” Abubakar said.
“That President Muhammadu Buhari assumes the presidency of the heads of states and government of the PAAGGW at the end of the fifth summit.
“The council believes that President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria is capable of taking the GGW delivery structure to a higher level if he becomes the chairman of the summit of heads of state and government of PAAGGW.
“That, if the Nigerian president takes over the leadership of the PAAGGW, it would be easier for the GGW programme to access about 5 billion USD as grant, and 14 billion USD soft loan available out there because of the respect the world has for the president.”
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