Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria and Ethiopia hold the largest stake in Africa’s future and must lead by example in tackling the continent’s most pressing challenges, particularly climate change.
Shettima made the declaration in Addis Ababa during the official launch of Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative (GLI), a bold environmental programme aimed at planting 20 billion tree seedlings over four years to fight deforestation, preserve biodiversity, and mitigate climate change.
Speaking at the event on Friday, the Vice President commended Ethiopia’s vision and commitment to environmental sustainability, describing the GLI as “an inspiring blueprint to reimagine the future” and a wake-up call to nations across the continent.
“We have long accepted that climate change is not a problem to be solved in a conference room,” Shettima stated. “It is a danger we must arrest with practical actions, with each nation rising to the occasion by responding to the peculiarities of the ecological burdens they face.”
He praised the Ethiopian government for its “clarity, courage, and conviction” in confronting the climate crisis and urged all nations to double their efforts in both adaptation and mitigation.
The Vice President is currently in Ethiopia on an official State visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. His presence at the launch underscored the deepening diplomatic and strategic cooperation between the two African powerhouses.
Shettima concluded by affirming that the dreams and destinies of Nigeria and Ethiopia are intertwined, noting that the success of the GLI is not just Ethiopia’s triumph but a model for the rest of the continent.
“The promise of the Green Legacy Initiative is the dream of every nation. It is a lesson in vision, in purpose, and in audacity,” he said.
