The Acting Auditor General of the Federation, Mrs Florence Anyanwu,
has said River Niger is drying up as a result of a whole lot of
uncontrolled activities going on in terms of the use of water.
However, realising the importance of the River Niger to the
generation of electricity, water transportation, agriculture and other
socioeconomic activities, the Federal Government is rallying other
members of the Niger Basin Development Authority (NBDA) to forestall the
drying up of the river.
Already, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) as
the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) for Nigeria is leading a Cooperative
Environmental Audit Project on River Niger that will particularly
include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’ Ivoire, Guinea,
Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
Mrs Anyanwu, who spoke at the opening of the sixth African
Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions Working Group on
Environmental Auditing (AFROSAI-WGEA), which opened in Abuja, on
Tuesday, said “right now, if you have been towards the Onitsha area of
the Niger River, you will realise that the river is drying up gradually.
In some countries, it has actually dried up. And that is about the
longest river and Nigeria represents the largest coastal area of the
river.
“The river represents a lot of economic activities, a whole lot of
prospective provision of electricity, there is a lot of navigation
activities so it is very relevant and important. Even in terms of
agriculture. So we looked at it and said we don’t want to stay back,
wait and watch what happened to Lake Chad also happen to River Niger.
“The earlier we can address it as a SAI, the better, so that we can
make recommendations to member countries to address it in their policy
formulation and implementation.”
According to her, AFROSAI-WGEA had already adopted the policy and
agreed to start that audit, saying that it was just the official
commencement “that we need the official approval for, which we are
hoping we will get at the end of this meeting.”
AFROSAI-WGEA, which is the African regional branch of International
Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions has similarly submitted an
audit report on Lake Chad to the Lake Chad Basin Development Authority
and its member countries on activities around the drying lake and what
to do to arrest its depletion.
Anyanwu said the main reasons for the study was to find out how the water resources in Lake Chad was being used.
“We also realised that a whole lot of governments around Lake Chad
were not implementing some of the bilateral agreements that they had on
the basin.
“That was some of the reasons why the AFROSAI-WGEA considered that
the drying up of Lake Chad is something of great importance to the
member countries.
“And we felt that doing that audit would also bring about a lot of
recommendations that will also help governments’ policy formulation in
terms of addressing the issues around Lake Chad.”
In her opening address, Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed
noted that “our environment is our sustenance and unless we care for our
environment, our own lives will be in danger. Unless we have a clear
knowledge of what is happening to our environment, we may not be able to
make appropriate policies for sustainable environmental management.”
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