President Muhammadu Buhari has demanded explanation from the Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel Ukura, on why $5 million released for Lake Chad study was not captured in an environmental audit report on the drying water.
The report was presented to the President at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday.
The $5 million, according to him, was released for the study on how to divert rivers from the Central African Republic to the drying Lake Chad.
At the presentation, Buhari said: “I have to digress here based on personal knowledge of this. I saw an article in the journal of National Demographic in 1978 that a professor at the University of London in 1925 had foreseen what we are just seeing.
“I handed over the article to Gen. Obasanjo and I understand that Gen. Obasanjo took the initiative sometime ago. It is on record that he is the only Nigerian that has presided over the country for more than 11 years.
“He gave $5 million to the study, and the study was that unless some of the rivers from the Central African Republic are diverted to empty into Chad Basin, Lake Chad will dry up.
“I understand that this report, which was sponsored by Nigeria, has been submitted. I am a bit disappointed that in the speech of the auditor-general, there was no mention of this report – whether my own report was correct – that $5 million was given.”
The President added: “One of the recommendations was that at the time the report was submitted, the cost of diverting one of the rivers to empty into Lake Chad would be between $13 billion and $15 billion.
“I will like the auditor-general to comment on this, whether they have received this report or the Ministry of Water Resources. I think this government will like to see this report and see how we can ask our foreign friends how they can help us.
“This is because if that river is diverted to empty into Chad Basin, I think it will affect at least two million Nigerians and another two million from Cameroon, Chad and Niger to resettle and perhaps that will help us to stop Boko Haram around that area.
“This is because we identified the enormous number of people there and their activities. We have to check desertification there.”
But Ukura explained that the report was not made available to the group, but only made available to the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
The commission, he said, would be in a better position to comment on the $5 million released for the study.
A representative of the commission, Sanusi Abdullahi, explained that the study had been completed while the cost estimate for the project was $14.5 billion
He said: “The report is a public document actually. It has been in the public domain since the study was concluded. Departments of government of Nigeria and other member-states have received copies.
“The situation is that the study had been completed. The cost estimate for the project is $14.5 billion. We have been consulting the Congo Basin to allay their fears on the environmental impact assessment they want us to add and we need some additional political support to be able to convince them that it is also in their interest to see that this water is diverted to Lake Chad.
“We have made efforts with the Champion of Save Lake Chad, former President Obasanjo, to sensitise the international community, particular Europe, whom we perceived have some unfriendly attitude towards the transfer.”
Buhari, earlier in his speech, lauded the wisdom of the first African leaders, who bequeathed the platform of the Lake Chad commission for cooperation among the neighbours.
He urged the National Assembly to domesticate the report.
