Mr
Ukura presented the environmental audit report to President Buhari at
the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday, but
things turned dramatic when the president gave his remarks.
According
to President Buhari, the sum of $5 million was released for the study
on how to divert rivers from the Central Africa Republic to the drying
Lake Chad and he expected that to reflect in the report being presented
to him. He said, “I have to digress here based on personal knowledge of
this. I saw an article in the journal of National Geographic in 1978
that a professor in the University of London in 1925 has foreseen what
we are just seeing.
“I handed over the article to Gen. Obasanjo and I understand that Gen. Obasanjo took the initiative sometimes 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 Africa 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 and whether my own report was correct: that $5 million was given. 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.”The president thereafter demanded an explanation from the auditor-general, asking him to also state if his office received the report or that the ministry of water resources did. “I think this government would like to see this report and see how we can ask our foreign friends on how they can help us,” Buhari said.
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