Desert Encroachment Desertification is one of the defining ecological challenges of our time, as it not only threatens the livelihoods of many agrarian families but also denies many people their ancestral homes, grazing lands and means of livelihood, and then subjects them to unwarranted migration and untold hardship. In a bid to arrest the appalling suffering desertification brings upon his people, Dr. Lawan moved a motion for Desertification Control and Management in Nigeria on 26th August, 1999 when he was a Member of the House of Representatives. In the same vein, he also sponsored the Desertification Control Commission Bill as a member of the House of Representatives in 2004. In pursuant of his determination to address the plague of desertification, in 2008 on the floor of the Senate, he also sponsored the bill for the establishment of the Desertification Control Commission. This bill is currently before the Senate, having been sponsored again by Senator Lawan in 2011. DESERTIFICATION: the A desert is a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all, and it therefore follows that desertification could be said to refer to the process by which an area becomes a desert through rapid depletion of plant life and the loss of topsoil. This is mainly caused by Yobe States. The construction of dams at Chalawa, Tiga and Hadejia-Jama’are has drastically reduced volume of water flow down, and this has influenced desert encroachment to the region. As pointed earlier, many tree species have completely disappeared from the region and many more are at the verge of disappearing.Similarly, rivers and Lakes have shrunk, and the situation is worsening every day. All the points aforementioned on the effects of the construction of dam’s upland lead ultimately to one horrid result: Desertification! In recognition of the negative effect of on the environment and its inhabitants, therefore, Senator (Dr.) Ahmed Lawan has, in addition to opposing further damming upland, moved following motion aimed at arresting this negative trend in the overall interest of the region. 1. Motion desertification control and management in Nigeria debated on 26/08/1999. 2. Bill on desertification control commission, debated on 2/3/2004. 3. Bill on desertification control commission in 2011. Sponsored a motion on the urgent need to save the Lake Chad, debated on 14/5/2013. These are by no means exhaustive, but a mere reflection of the distinguished Senator’s honest efforts towards combating the catastrophic effect of desertification. The federal Government is hereby called to join in the effort by recharging the Lake Chad from river Bangui in Central Africa Republic.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 09:25:01 +0000
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