All the stakeholders should do more to ensure the lake is functional

At a three-day international conference on how to recharge the drying and shrinking Lake Chad held in Abuja in 2018, then President Muhammadu Buhari warned that the world would pay dearly if the lake was allowed to go into extinction. He said the shrinking of the lake and intensification of desertification had caused several people who were dependent on it for irrigation, farming and drinking water for cattle to leave the area. But despite all the talk, for the eight years he was in office, the Buhari administration made no serious commitment in that direction.

 Buhari’s warning was re-echoed last week by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Christopher Musa, who emphasized the strategic importance of recharging Lake Chad to the military’s ongoing counterterrorism efforts in the Northeast region. “We are looking forward to holding another meeting focused on clearing all obstacles in Lake Chad and recharging it. This is very important to our ongoing efforts against insecurity,” Musa stated while underscoring the dual security and economic significance of the Lake that supports the livelihoods of more than 50 million people across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no commitment to changing the narrative despite the obvious danger to the nation and the region. A decade ago, a report titled, ‘Environmental Audit of the Drying Up of the Lake Chad’ had similarly warned of dire consequences for Nigeria and neighbouring countries should the Lake Chad basin be allowed to dry up. The key message in the report which noted that there is a correlation between the shrinking of Lake Chad and the current insecurity in the Northeast of the country was that “Lake Chad is drying up very fast – from 25,000 Square Kilometre in 1963 to just 1500 Square Kilometre at present.”

Situated on the extreme northern part of Borno State and bordering three other countries, the lake (once famous for being one of the largest water bodies in Africa), has become a shadow of itself. Experts have blamed the shrinkage of the lake on a number of factors including climate change, overgrazing, excessive and inappropriate demand for water resources, as well as poor enforcement of environmental legislation.

A combination of these factors has adversely impacted the lake such that apart from occupying less than a twentieth of its original size, there is now receding shoreline, desertification, and a threat to livelihood among the surrounding communities drawn from Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger. With lack of water for irrigation leading to crop failures, livestock deaths because of desertification, collapsed fisheries, soil salinity, wilting plants, withered trees and shrubs, Lake Chad is fast losing its traditional staples of water and vegetation which had sustained livelihood and bourgeoning economic activities for about 30 million people in the area.

Understandably, the shrinkage has also led to some tension and communal clashes among the remaining communities as they struggle to control what is left of the water body. Nigerian communities have had several clashes with Nigerien communities, as a result. Since many people who had drawn livelihood from the Lake Chad area are moving southward in search of the proverbial greener pasture, this has also promoted clashes between herdsmen and host communities.

It is particularly noteworthy that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has linked the rise of the insurgency in the Northeast to poverty as a result of the failing fortunes of the lake. What that suggests is that the federal government and other stakeholders must muster the will to implement the relevant recommendations in the many reports on how to resuscitate the economic activities associated with the lake. This is the time to move from empty rhetoric to concrete actions.