By John Ikani
Jeff Bezos, American billionaire and founder of Amazon, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s ambition to restore four million hectares of degraded landscape in Nigeria is commendable.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement titled ‘In Glasgow, American billionaire, Jeff Bezos, hails President Buhari’s climate change actions.’
Bezos joined President Buhari, French President Emmanuel Macron, Prince Charles and the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani at a COP 26 side event entitled “Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative.”
The statement quoted Bezos saying: ‘‘We are fortunate to have President Buhari of Nigeria with us today. Nigeria plays a critical role in the restoration movement and has pledged to restore 4 million hectares of degraded lands.
‘‘This kind of ambition coming from Africa’s largest economy underscores just how vital this issue is.’’
The Bezos Earth Fund has a 10 billion dollar fund to allocate money to projects fighting climate change.
Nigeria is due to assume the leadership of Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall.
President Buhari had used the occasion of his address to appeal to fellow leaders to continue to make concerted efforts at land restoration.
‘‘I am optimistic that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100million hectares of degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable,’’ he said.
President Buhari also pledged Nigeria’s unalloyed commitment to expanding the achievements of the GGW programme in Africa from the enviable status attained under the leadership of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania.
‘‘Together we commit to the transformative process of restoring the African degraded landscape and ultimately the continent’s environment,’’ he said
