Gombe goes Green: Killing two birds with one stone
Gombe goes Green: Killing two birds with one stone
By Kabiru Danladi Lawanti |
Published Date Dec 20, 2019 4:06 AM
From its creation in 1996, Gombe State has seen a lot of transformations that changed its status from being a big village to a fast developing city in the north-east. Located at the heart of the north-east of Nigeria, Gombe state is a business hub for the whole region. With its relative peace, harmonious relationship between the various ethnic and religious groups residing within its length and breadth, the state remains the most peaceful in the entire north-east geo-political region.
With a population of over three million (3 million) according to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics projection, the state faces an enormous challenge of catering for this teeming population. Youth unemployment stood between 25% to 27%. The state is also faced with serious environmental challenges ranging from gully erosion to deforestation. We all remember with nostalgia the sight of the forests that greeted us in the 70s and 80s between Dukku to Nafada, Dukku to Gombe, Gombe to Dadinkowa, Deba to Balanga. In fact, when growing up, it was easy to notice the vast forest between Wuro Dole to Gombe town or the one between Gombe Town to Kumo. Or the one that greeted travelers from Kumo to the state southern border in Cham town.
Any government faced with this myriad of challenges – unemployment and deforestation, has to act and act fast. Supply of fire wood for domestic energy became a source of employment for many people in recent times with devastating consequences for the environment. Thousands of trucks and lorries ply the state routes, sometimes hiding behind darkness of the night to transport firewood to the state capital and other neighboring states, turning the Jewel in the Savannah to an arid state of sort.
Realizing this, couple with the unemployment crises, the government of Gombe State, under the leadership of Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, came with a policy that can be used to kill two birds with one stone. The Governor’s policy was meant on one side to address the state’s environmental challenges and on the other provide direct jobs to thousands of people across the state. The project tagged “3G” or Gombe Goes Green, is designed to create shelterbelts initially across four Local Government Areas in the Northern part of the state hit by serious desertification, however, the Governor decided to roll the project across all the 11 Local Government Areas of the state. The project also provides 27,000 direct jobs to unemployed people across the state. The jobs, not only targeted the youth alone, but was designed to cut across all ages and gender and cover all the 11 Local Government Areas of the State.
Already the State Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Muhammad Yahaya has said hundreds of thousands of trees were planted across all the Local Government Areas of the state. According to him “through 3G, we will continue to take necessary measures aimed at increasing the adaptive capacity toward reducing the negative impact of flood and erosion on the populace”. The project was aligned with a World Bank assisted Youth and Social Support Operation (YESSO) where the beneficiaries of this initiative will be paid N7,500 monthly stipends to nurture trees planted under the 3G project.
To ensure transparency and accountability in these two initiatives, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya himself issued ATM cards to the beneficiaries with five-month arrears for each of the beneficiaries. This, according to the Governor, was to remove middle-men from the process and ensure that the beneficiaries receive their stipends directly from the government. For many, who understand the effect of environmental degradation and the impact it has on climate change, also with the devastating flooding witnessed in recent times, the Governor’s project is laudable. Tree planting is acknowledged by the United Nations as critical in terms of “soil protection, mitigating climate change and maintaining biodiversity”. This is what focused leaders do and Alhaji Yahaya is providing this focus to a state devastated by desert encroachment.
Aligning the 3G tree planting campaign with YESSO is one of the greatest creativity that the Inuwa Yahaya led administration has come up with. While trees provide local communities with sustainable livelihoods, fodder for livestock, fuel wood, medicine, timber, resins and gums, those employed to nurture the trees were provided with immediate work opportunities, through the provision of general social services and at the same time strengthening of social safety net in the state. Unlike the previous Road Marshals project by the previous administration, which was concentrated inside Gombe town and targeted only youth, the 3G/YESSO project cut across all ages and gender and the project was extended to all the 11 local governments of the state. This alone defeats the arguments of the proponents of the Road Traffic Marshals. Also, a project that covers all 11 local governments and cut across all ages and gender and gives 27,000 people direct jobs is far more encompassing than the one targeting only 4000 youth, who happened to live inside Gombe town.
Commonsense will tell someone that 27,000 is greater than 4,000. And people employed to nurture trees in an already environmentally degraded state facing serious climatic conditions like erosion, flooding and desertification is better than those employed only to man traffic points. I think it is not even comparable. Instead of criticizing the project, I urge well-meaning people of Gombe to support this laudable project launched by Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya. States grow when critics pay more attention to how things can be corrected if they are wrong, not by destroying well-thought out projects like the 3G/YESSO
Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, ABU Zaria. kblondon2003@yahoo.com
Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/gombe-goes-green-killing-two-birds-with-one-stone.html
By Kabiru Danladi Lawanti |
Published Date Dec 20, 2019 4:06 AM
From its creation in 1996, Gombe State has seen a lot of transformations that changed its status from being a big village to a fast developing city in the north-east. Located at the heart of the north-east of Nigeria, Gombe state is a business hub for the whole region. With its relative peace, harmonious relationship between the various ethnic and religious groups residing within its length and breadth, the state remains the most peaceful in the entire north-east geo-political region.
With a population of over three million (3 million) according to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics projection, the state faces an enormous challenge of catering for this teeming population. Youth unemployment stood between 25% to 27%. The state is also faced with serious environmental challenges ranging from gully erosion to deforestation. We all remember with nostalgia the sight of the forests that greeted us in the 70s and 80s between Dukku to Nafada, Dukku to Gombe, Gombe to Dadinkowa, Deba to Balanga. In fact, when growing up, it was easy to notice the vast forest between Wuro Dole to Gombe town or the one between Gombe Town to Kumo. Or the one that greeted travelers from Kumo to the state southern border in Cham town.
Any government faced with this myriad of challenges – unemployment and deforestation, has to act and act fast. Supply of fire wood for domestic energy became a source of employment for many people in recent times with devastating consequences for the environment. Thousands of trucks and lorries ply the state routes, sometimes hiding behind darkness of the night to transport firewood to the state capital and other neighboring states, turning the Jewel in the Savannah to an arid state of sort.
Realizing this, couple with the unemployment crises, the government of Gombe State, under the leadership of Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, came with a policy that can be used to kill two birds with one stone. The Governor’s policy was meant on one side to address the state’s environmental challenges and on the other provide direct jobs to thousands of people across the state. The project tagged “3G” or Gombe Goes Green, is designed to create shelterbelts initially across four Local Government Areas in the Northern part of the state hit by serious desertification, however, the Governor decided to roll the project across all the 11 Local Government Areas of the state. The project also provides 27,000 direct jobs to unemployed people across the state. The jobs, not only targeted the youth alone, but was designed to cut across all ages and gender and cover all the 11 Local Government Areas of the State.
Already the State Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Muhammad Yahaya has said hundreds of thousands of trees were planted across all the Local Government Areas of the state. According to him “through 3G, we will continue to take necessary measures aimed at increasing the adaptive capacity toward reducing the negative impact of flood and erosion on the populace”. The project was aligned with a World Bank assisted Youth and Social Support Operation (YESSO) where the beneficiaries of this initiative will be paid N7,500 monthly stipends to nurture trees planted under the 3G project.
To ensure transparency and accountability in these two initiatives, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya himself issued ATM cards to the beneficiaries with five-month arrears for each of the beneficiaries. This, according to the Governor, was to remove middle-men from the process and ensure that the beneficiaries receive their stipends directly from the government. For many, who understand the effect of environmental degradation and the impact it has on climate change, also with the devastating flooding witnessed in recent times, the Governor’s project is laudable. Tree planting is acknowledged by the United Nations as critical in terms of “soil protection, mitigating climate change and maintaining biodiversity”. This is what focused leaders do and Alhaji Yahaya is providing this focus to a state devastated by desert encroachment.
Aligning the 3G tree planting campaign with YESSO is one of the greatest creativity that the Inuwa Yahaya led administration has come up with. While trees provide local communities with sustainable livelihoods, fodder for livestock, fuel wood, medicine, timber, resins and gums, those employed to nurture the trees were provided with immediate work opportunities, through the provision of general social services and at the same time strengthening of social safety net in the state. Unlike the previous Road Marshals project by the previous administration, which was concentrated inside Gombe town and targeted only youth, the 3G/YESSO project cut across all ages and gender and the project was extended to all the 11 local governments of the state. This alone defeats the arguments of the proponents of the Road Traffic Marshals. Also, a project that covers all 11 local governments and cut across all ages and gender and gives 27,000 people direct jobs is far more encompassing than the one targeting only 4000 youth, who happened to live inside Gombe town.
Commonsense will tell someone that 27,000 is greater than 4,000. And people employed to nurture trees in an already environmentally degraded state facing serious climatic conditions like erosion, flooding and desertification is better than those employed only to man traffic points. I think it is not even comparable. Instead of criticizing the project, I urge well-meaning people of Gombe to support this laudable project launched by Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya. States grow when critics pay more attention to how things can be corrected if they are wrong, not by destroying well-thought out projects like the 3G/YESSO
Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, ABU Zaria. kblondon2003@yahoo.com
Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/gombe-goes-green-killing-two-birds-with-one-stone.html
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