Commission blames lack of regional development on insecurity

The Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) has attributed the slow pace of development of the region on insecurity, non-payment of counterpart funds by member countries.The Commission also lamented the negative impact of climate change and activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the region, which it said had led to their inability to execute 70per cent of their budget for the development of the communities.

Executive Secretary of LCBC, Sanusi Abdullahi who disclosed this in Abuja during the meeting of the Committee of National experts to the 63rd ordinary session of the LCBC Council of Ministers Meeting. He stated that prior to the upsurge of the activities of Boko Haram IN 2014, the commission was able to implement some projects in the rural community especially poverty alleviation and provision of drinking water and sanitation to the rural communities.

He said with the partial degradation of the insurgents, the situation is now favourable for the execution of the project stressing that there is a global plan to address the challenges in the region as a collective effort by the four member countries including Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

According to him, as the countries are addressing security challenges, they would continue to execute projects. On financing the commission, he said that of all the member countries, only Nigeria has met the financial obligations to the commission, and advised its members to fulfill their commitment to earn the respect of their technical and financial partners and make the commission attractive for interventions.

He stated that programmes designed to rehabilitate and strengthen the resilience of the basin ecosystems is on course despite some challenges, expressing hope that the programme would pick up momentum by the end of the first quarter of the year.

Sanusi added; “There is no other sustainable way of recharging lake Chad without bringing water from other place and the only visible thing to be done was to bring water from Congo Basin. Bringing water from the Congo Basin is the most sustainable and efficient way of saving Lake Chad and bringing hope, development and infrastructure development and cooperation between African countries”.