Vice President Kashim Shettima has advocated for the revival of Lake Chad to enhance all-year-round farming and support the Green Revolution Project.
Mr Shettima made the call on Wednesday at the UN Food Systems Summit +4 (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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He spoke at a panel on “Country Perspectives: Government-led Strategies and Regional Frameworks.”
He said the revival of the Lake Chad region, being threatened by multidimensional challenges, is crucial to rebuilding sustainable and inclusive food systems in the region and across Africa.
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The vice president identified the challenges to include, environmental degradation, climate change, humanitarian crises and conflict.
According to him, addressing the multidimensional challenges requires a multi-pronged approach, development initiatives, conflict resolution, regional cooperation, and large-scale infrastructure.
The vice president challenged African nations to desist from charity and long-term aid from the developed world, as they are not sustainable solutions for Africa’s development and may even be detrimental.
“We believe charity is not the answer. In Africa, we say that when you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day,” he said.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s administration has designed a comprehensive strategy to address food security challenges, which mostly impact vulnerable citizens in conflict-affected regions.
“Our target is to attain food sovereignty. So long as a nation is not independent in the area of food sovereignty, it remains a non-sovereign nation.
“President Tinubu declared a State of Emergency on food security, not out of fear, but out of genuine concern for the welfare of our people.
“This is especially in conflict-driven environments like the North-east, where Boko Haram was sowing seeds of discord and destruction,” he stated.
READ ALSO: What Nigeria, Cameroon must do to stop ISWAP’s expansion in Lake Chad basin
Mr Shettima explained that with 25 million vulnerable people across fragile regions, the government adopted coordinated policy measures.
He stressed that Nigeria’s agricultural transformation strategy is market-driven, powered by entrepreneurship and innovation.
“Our belief is that agriculture should be market-driven.
“The whole mantra is about increasing yields. Entrepreneurial capitalism is embedded in the psyche of the average Nigerian,” he said.
(NAN)
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