Leadership (Abuja)
Osunde Adesuwa
14 March 2008
The bill for an Act to establish Desertification Control Commission, scaled second reading in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The bill if passed, will vest the responsibility for the control and management of desertification in the commission.
The bill seeks to establish a body that will be responsible for the control, management and reinstatement of the desert area in the north to its former state through processes such as forestation and other related matters.
Hon Mohammed Abubakar Maipata who sponsored the bill, informed the House that 35-75 per cent of Bauchi, Gombe, Kano and other northern states which account for about 35million of the nation's population are affected by desertification.
He went further to say that the problem was a practical one that "touches the lives of everyone in the north. Their villages and major roads had been buried by drought and is a threat to the food security in the area as well as that of their lives"
Maipata said that despite attempts by the federal government to address the problem through the Ministry of Environment, much progress had not been made due to factors that include poor funding and change of policies, adding that the feat was not an unrealistic one since countries like Israel had succeeded in controlling desertification in the country.
"Efforts have been made by the federal government to combat desertification in the north but have yielded little results because of changes in policy. Israel is in the desert area but has succeeded."
He added that the Israeli agency that handles their desertification had turned their "desert land into what could be called a forest", going further to say that he "sees no reason why Nigeria cannot do same". Lending his voice in favour of the bill, Hon Mohammed Ali Ndume said it will be dangerous to overlook the problem and dismiss it as a problem of the north as the north was just a starting point of the problem which will likely extend to other areas of the country in the nearest future.
"The north is most affected for now because usually a problem starts from a point and if concrete measures are not taken, some years from now might be the people of the Niger Delta or other places.
"The north east and other parts of the north are already getting used to it but the heat has started moving down towards the middle belt", he stated.
The bill was referred to the Committee on Environment.
Similarly, a bill to amend the student union activities(control and regulations)Act 2004 to empower institutions governing body to sanction students and bodies and remove clauses which infringe on fundamental human rights of students, 2008 also scaled through second reading in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The bill which was moved by Hon. Herman Hembe seeks to reorganise the student union disciplinary laws and make laws to protect human rights of students.
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