By JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) has called on Zamfara State residents to embrace Clean Cooking System in order to reduce using fire wood and charcoal for cooking.
The Head of Administration Department of the Agency, Mr Nasiru Isma’il made the call when he led officials of the agency and State Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources to visit Gusau Emirs’ Palace, Primary and Secondary Schools in Gusau, the State Capital.
The visit was part of the activities of the agency to mark the Great Green Wall Day 2024.
The theme for the day is, “Fueling a Greener Future: Clean Cooking for Sustainable Development.
Isma’il noted that the agency was saddled with the responsibility of discouraging desertification and land degradation in eleven states in Northern Nigeria.
“Today, we are out to propagate the use of Cleaner Cooking Stoves as part of our mandate to discourage deforestation to ensure clean cooking practices for sustainable development.
“We are emphasizing on the use of cooking gas considering its impact to saving of our trees for the future of our environment,
“As we all know, trees are very very important both environmentally, economically and socially.
“We are calling on our people to embrace use of gas cooking stoves in order to reduce use of fire wood and charcoal,” he added
Receiving the team, the Emir of Gusau, Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, has called for collective action against climate change, assuring support to government policies and programmes to promote tree planting.
The traditional ruler urged that all the stakeholders must support government policies towards addressing the challenges of climate change in Nigeria.
“I commend you for initiating various projects to reduce the falling of trees in order to save the environment, we will continue to support you.
“With this your effort of reaching stakeholders especially at grassroots will understand more on the significant impact of deforestation to climate change”, the Emir added.
In a remark, the Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Alhaji Garba Dauran, expressed the commitment of the state government under Gov, Dauda Lawal in the fight against deforestation.
“The state government plans to distribute 4500 clean cooking stoves to the people of the State as part of its commitment to reduce the use of fire wood for cooking in the state”, he said.
Dauran assured the state government’s continued support and synergy with the agency to achieve the Agroclimatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project in the state.
The State Field Officer of the Agency, Alhaji Sani Muhammad, said the delegation had earlier visited schools for outreach programmes.
“We have visited Ibrahim Gusau Special Model Primary School and Government Girls’ Arabic Secondary School Gusau where we interacted with the students and propagated the use of Clean Cooking System instead of using fire wood,” he said.
