Sagir Attahiru Bafarawa is one of the youngest political appointees in the administration of Sokoto’s governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. The son of former governor of Sokoto state and Democratic Peoples Party presidential candidate in the 2003 General elections, Alhaji Dalhatu Attahiru Bafarawa, Sagir is the Commissioner of Environment. He spoke on how the state is tackling the perennial issues of environment in an exclusive interview with ASHENEWS. Excerpts:
Sokoto state government has embarked on projects to check environment challenges, including flooding, gully erosion, etc. Starting with NEWMAP, what’s happening in that partnership?
NEWMAP is a World Bank project that started in 2013. Sokoto state is in partnership with the Bank to basically address environmental challenges such as erosion control and watershed management. On issues of erosion, in comparison, the cases in the north are infinitesimal compared to what we have in the southern states of Nigeria. The World Bank started addressing the issues of environmental degradation in the southern states and most of the states in the north joined in 2017.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal in his wisdom and foresight, lookd at the issue as big of course, Sokoto being one of the 11 frontline states in Nigeria hit by environmental challenges, especially desertification. He indicated the state’s interest to the World Bank, fulfilled all conditions, including counterpart funding for the projects and the state joined NEWMAP for programmes that are targeted at these issues.
One of the places where Sokoto state has problems is Mabera and Tudun Wada areas. We submitted our proposal to the World Bank which went through rigorous process of site selection, technical drawings and so on. We have other areas that are not erosion problems but watershed management issues. We have a collapelsed Dam for example, which requires building another one. You will agree that economic activities associated with Dams are enormous and our governor took congnisance of that. We have other earth Dams in Yarbulutu, Sakwai, which the governor has serious interest in seeing they are executed. Drainage to control erosion will take place in Specialist Hospital, Tureta, Sanyinna and lots of other place where we expressed interest, even though the programme will end in June this year.
We entered the programme late. So there is no way we will get these done before the end of the NEWMAP programme in June. Fortunately, we have approval for the Mabera design and implementation. The design for Lugu Dam has approval but implementation has none. This is because of time lapse. To build a Dam, you need – plus or minus – two years. World Bank gave us approval for Lugu Dam in November 2020 World Bank but they would not extend time for the programme from June 2021. For other projects, we are trying to ensure that drawings are approved by the Bank before the programme winds up.
Sokoto is one of the 11 frontline states hit by desertification. Every year, you have cases of desert encroachment into parts of your communities. Do you see convening an international conference as one of ways to attract foreign attention to the state?
We are not thinking of any conference, at least not for now. The issues are known already. At present, we are partnering with the Federal government, especially on the Great Green Wall towards controlling desertification. At this stage, we are planting trees to curb desert encroachment. Last year, the state government raised two million tree economic and non economic seedlings over a total landscape of 100 hactares. We are also encouraging farmers and individuals to take planting of trees as serious. One challenge, especially in this region, is that we rely heavily on firewood for domestic cooking. It is also a business for some people. We are working on substitute for firewood as source of energy for cooking. Last year too, the state government distributed 5,000 cooking gas to people to reduce cutting of trees. We are also trying to dust off our existing laws that prohibit cutting of trees in the state.
Villages like Yarbulutu are being issued quit notices by gully erosion, that the situation cannot wait for the next Work Bank intervention. What’s the state government’s interim intervention plan?
You see, whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. We don’t want to rush to do what will not stand the test of time. We are taking our time, in collaboration with the communities, to see how we can address the issue. Don’t forget that some of the problems in Yarbulutu are man-made. People excavate illegally. But we have gone there and stopped all the illegal excavation of lands. We have started providing non-structural solutions by planting trees.
