With the wave of dramatic successes being recorded in the
onslaught against insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
states, Environment Minister Mrs. Laurentia Laraba Mallam
has indicated that the implementation of all aspects of the
Great Green Wall Project in the affected states will soon
resume.
The Minister dropped the hint today in her office in Abuja
while speaking to journalists, explaining that the programme
just like any other human activities in the affected states
had to grind to a halt, following the state of insecurity in
the area.
Mallam assured that the pace of implementation of the
programme will be accelerated in the affected areas in order
to make up for the lost period.
According to her, seedlings and other forms of preparations
are being made in readiness to the resumption of tree
planting, especially as regards shelter belts and orchards.
The Environment Minister said, the assurance became
necessary following fears expressed by members of the public
that the programme has been abandoned in the three states,
maintaining that the mandate of the programme covers eleven
states in the Northern Region, adding that no state will be
denied its share of the project.
The Minister noted that various nursery beds of crops and
plants are being raised in peaceful areas of affected
states, preparatory to being moved to the fields for
planting as soon as the guns die down.
Mrs. Mallam used the occasion to express appreciation to all
the state governors and traditional rulers in the affected
states for the overwhelming support they have given in the
course of the implementation of the programme in the past
two years, assuring that the project when completed will
turn around the fortunes of Northern Nigeria.
BEN BEM GOONG
Deputy Director (Press and Public Relations Unit)
