Abuja — President Olusegun Obasanjo has attributed Africa's environmental problems to activities of other nations, saying, "Many African nations did not contribute to environmental degradation through emissions but suffered debilitating implications due to the activities of other nations".

Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media) in statement said President Obasanjo stated this in Accra, Ghana on Saturday, January 13, at the Second German-African Forum on the "Environment and the Natural Habitat".

President Obasanjo said Nigeria was working with other nations in Africa, notably Niger Republic, Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic for the restoration of the Lake Chad.

According to him, unless drastic redress was made, Lake Chad stood the risk of drying up. "We have to do something about the Lake so that about ten million people will not be out of water", President Obasanjo stressed.

The President asked for international assistance to enable African nations develop their adaptive capacities to cope with the challenges of climate change.

He called for strict adherence by all nations to existing international protocols on environmental and bio-diversity preservation.

The practice of cutting down trees in Africa has also had an effect on afforestation and the environment, the President said.

It will be recalled that the Nigeria-driven Green Wall Sahara initiative was launched in Abuja in December 2006 as a programme of the African Union to save the African environment, conserve the ecosystem, check and reverse the desertification process.

With specific reference to Nigeria, President Obasanjo told the forum of efforts by his government to check coastal erosion, desertification and the effects of oil exploration.

The Presidents of Benin Republic, Botswana and Liberia as well as the Chairman of the AU Commission and the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS are also attending the three-day forum co-hosted by President Horst Kohler of Germany and President John Kuffour of Ghana.