As the Sahara Engulfs the Nigeria

By

Salisu Suleiman

ssuleiman@gmail.com

Once, while traveling from Katsina to Sokoto via Kaura Namoda in the company of a former Managing Director of the Sokoto-Rima River Basin Development Authority, he reflected nostalgically about how, plying the same road as a student in 1968, he had to regularly stop his motorcycle to allow elephants, giraffes, antelopes and other wild animals to cross the. So rich was the vegetation and water resources. Today, you can drive along that same road for many kilometers without seeing a blade of grass, not to talk of animals. The vegetation is gone, the water has disappeared and the animals long extinct.

In 1964, the Lake Chad covered an area of 25,000 square kilometers. Today, it barely covers 2,500. The once prodigious fishing has all but dwindled to a trickle. The lives and property of the 15 million or so people that depend on the lake are anything but assured. At the rate at which the lake is currently receding, it may soon vanish from the surface of the Earth altogether.

The rivers and streams people used to know have become dried-out river beds. Once mighty rivers have become mere streams, some of which have water only during the rainy season. Orchards, farmlands and wetlands are rapidly dying out. Driving along the popular Zaria – Kano express way, it is virtually impossible to find a tree big enough to provide any form of shade – either to pray underneath or simply to rest. Even famous Falgore can pass for anything but a forest.

Across most states of the North, especially those bordering the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, the environment has, within a generation turned from lush to arid, and now, practically desert. From Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno, the story is the same. Even states like Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa that are not contiguous to the Sahara desert are hardly left out. In fact, in a way, they have become victims because the firewood merchants of the frontline states, having cleaned out their own states of tress now go as far as Gombe, Plateau and even Benue to chop down trees for firewood. Indeed, Benue, Kwara, Kogi and Niger face a two-pronged attack – from the firewood merchants in the North and the timber merchants from the South who have to forage northwards, having cleared out their forests.

As it were, Northern Nigeria is already encumbered with a plethora of problems ranging from educational backwardness, decline in agricultural productivity, economic stagnation, unemployment etc. But all of these challenges are secondary to the challenge posed by the encroachment of the Sahara. Research has shown that a large part of what is the Sahara Desert today used to be lush savannah with wide variety of plant and animal life. However, over time, environmental changes transformed the landscape into what is now the biggest desert in the world. But the Sahara is not stopping its southward journey. It is encroaching southwards at the rate of a few metres in some states to upwards of six kilometers in others annually. Herein lies the crux of the matter.

As the local parlance goes, ‘prevention is better than cure’. For many years, we have witnessed tree planting campaigns. However, many of these so-called tree planting campaigns are mere exercises in futility. As soon as the Governor departs, the trees are left on their own. Those that are not eaten by the next animal that comes along are usually left to wither and die. Come back in a week or two and you’d wonder where the trees have gone. I have seen tress in shelter belts being chopped down for firewood. I have seen trucks conveying firewood from Gombe to Kano. Recently in Kaduna, the scarcity of wood was so severe that it delayed the burial of some departed Muslim souls.

If Nigeria must halt the Sahara’s relentless southward march, then the time for action is upon us. The time to pay lip service to tree-planting is gone, and a comprehensive plan of action must be developed. The efforts of Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe to create a National Desertification Commission must be commended. But the issues at stake go beyond the reach of just one agency. The federal, states and local government areas must all be involved. Indeed, it is important to create a role for the private sector in the fight against desertification. Individuals; men women and children must be involved. But as usual, all these are easier said than done. Thus, the question: what feasible steps are needed to halt the fast encroaching desert?

A major reason for the mass deforestation being experienced is the fact that firewood and charcoal still constitute the major cooking fuel in many Nigerian homes. If wood fuel is still used in urban areas like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, etc, then one can only imagine the situation in rural areas. The reason why firewood is so popular is of course the cost. It is cheaper than kerosene. And for as long as this remains the case, trees will continue to be chopped down for firewood. Therefore, if the government is really serious about halting desertification, it must make alternative cooking fuels like kerosene cheaper and more available.

The good news is that like many challenges, there is an opportunity lurking in the background. Nigeria has billions of tons of coal which she has not cared to mine. The coal is rich, low in sulphur and can be used to make coal briquettes which is a slow burning fuel than can easily replace firewood. In fact, it can be shaped and molded like firewood for ease of use. The private sector ought to be encouraged to go into this sector because the business potentials are great. In Lafia, Otukpa and Okaba in Nasarawa, Benue and Kogi states respectively, large coal deposits exist. The opportunities to develop a sub economy and create thousands of jobs abound.

For areas where vegetation has already been lost, opportunities also exist for the creation of a sub economy capable of creating jobs. Has anybody ever cut down a fruit-bearing mango tree for firewood? Do firewood merchants chop dogonyaro (neem) for wood fuel? Do farmers cut down gum Arabic trees to cook a meal? Of Course not! And that is because the trees have economic value. Properly nurtured, these trees and many others can thrive in arid areas, and not just help prevent desert encroachment, but also provide income for farmers and others whose lands are being threatened by the desert.

However, no matter how tough a tree is, it still requires water. And this brings another opportunity yet again to facilitate economic development. With the help of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the federal government has water resources master-plan designed to ensure a systematic and sustainable water resources development strategy. Part of this master-plan call for the construction of small earth dams in strategic locations across Nigeria. Indeed, due to the environmental impact of huge dams, they are now being discouraged in favour of small dams. Construction of these small earth dams are relatively cheap and can be made to be labour intensive in order to create jobs. When completed, the dams become sources of water for the trees planted, and make for irrigated agriculture.

Rainfall harvesting is another way to ensure that dams have water always. In Nigeria today, a significant percent of rainfall flow away as run-off and end up in the sea. Regional variation in precipitation means that some areas get more rainfall than others. Thus, rainfall harvesting is designed to ensure that rain is tapped, carefully harvested and stored like the precious commodity it is. This way, water is available for domestic, agricultural and other uses when needed. This would also render the indiscriminate drilling of boreholes a thing of the past. As it were, boreholes in some areas of Nigeria have exhausted the first and second aquifers of water and drillers have to dig deeper and deeper to find water. It takes about 10,000 years to replenish a depleted aquifer.

The receding Lake Chad also presents another opportunity to halt the Sahara and at the same time stimulate economic activity. Nigeria shares the lake with the Republics of Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic (CAR). Plans to dam the River Oubangi in the CAR and transfer the water to the Lake Chad should be implemented as a matter of priority. A project of this magnitude would impact on the lives of millions of people by saving veritable natural resources, restoring the ecological balance and provide a sustainable means of livelihood to the 15 million people dependent on the lake.

The call to fight desert encroachment and the strategies suggested above may seem expensive. But do we just sit by and watch our homes become a part of the Sahara? When undertaken holistically and with integrity, whatever investments made would be recovered many times over. If the most advanced economies in the world are spending trillions of dollars to create and retain jobs, why can’t the tiers of government combine, and also encourage the private sector to join this effort to redeem our beloved land?

And I know it can be done. On a trip to the Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project, we stayed at a site built by the French engineers then working on the Project. Carved out of the desert almost surreally, the camp was a green land in a sea of sand. It is live with many kinds of trees that had been planted and nurtured. Indeed it had evolved its own mini ecological sub system. With the chirping of birds, cool breeze and relaxed ambience, it was easy to forget that we were at the edge of the Sahara. This is a scene that can, and must be replicated all over Nigeria to halt deadly advance of the desert.