$14bn needed to revive Lake Chad, reduce youths migrations to Europe – Buhari tells Paris climate confab

President Muhammadu Buhari has said to reduce continued migration of African youths ‎to Europe, $14 billion is needed to revive Lake Chad Basin and save communities dependent on the River Niger from extinction.

The president called on developed countries to make strong financial commitments to the fund urgently when he addressed a high-level meeting on ‘Climate Change Challenges and Solutions in Africa’, on the sidelines of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference, COP 21, in Paris.

President Buhari who pointed out that more than five million people living in the Lake Chad Basin countries have been displaced by the depletion of the lake due to climate change, regretted that the shrinkage of Lake Chad, a former island resulted in increased social conflicts, high rates of migration and cross border movements.

“Nigeria has a large population of over 170 million people and in some parts of northern Nigeria, a farm that used to belong to 10 people now belongs to over 100 people. They have no other place to live and no land for cultivation,” he said.

President Buhari recalled that a research conducted by a professor in a London university and published more than three decades ago had predicted that unless one or some of the rivers from the Central African region are diverted to empty into the Lake Chad basin, the river will dry up.

He noted that sadly that prediction has become reality as the lake that covers over 25,000 square kilometres in 1925 have shrunk to 2,500 square kilometres.

Also, Tuesday, President Buhari congratulated Mr. Roch Marc Christian Kabore of the Movement of People for Progress Party on his historic election as the second civilian president of Burkina Faso.

He called on Kabore to use his famed democratic credentials and vast parliamentary experience to join hands with other contestants to work together for the peace, progress, prosperity and unity of Burkina Faso.

President Buhari said the successful conclusion of the electoral process would usher in a new era of true democracy and good governance in that country.