Africa Desertification Control Initiative, a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), on Tuesday advised the Federal Government to take a holistic approach to the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative.
The Executive Director of the NGO, Mr. Umar Dahiru, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen  in Abuja.
Dahiru said that a holistic implementation of the initiative would ensure its success and sustainability.
He said the advice became necessary considering that about 21, 000 squares kilometers of land was affected by desertification yearly going by statistics from experts, describing the situation as “alarming’’.
The Great Green Wall Programme (GGWP) is a project developed by the African Union to address social, economic and environmental impact of land degradation and desertification in the Sahel and Sahara zones.
Dahiru said that the project would be implemented in 11 African countries and would cover about 7,775 kilometres in length, 15 kilometres in width over a total area of 11, 662,500 hectares.
The project is also expected to be implemented in 11 front line states in Nigeria. The states are Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi and Yobe.
“It is a gigantic project; my advice for the Federal Government is to give it a holistic approach because serious problems like desertification needs serious attention but I think the government is doing well in that respect.
“I learnt that the Federal Government had made provision to source and plant 10 million seedlings this year for their own part of Great Green Wall Initiative component, which I think is a good development.
“All the same, I think the National Assembly is making effort to establish a commission to combat desertification and erosion control, which is a very good initiative also.
“Desertification is a major environmental problem we are having in this country apart from other environmental issues like erosion, oil spillage and other things.“
Dahiru said that the security challenges in the northern parts of the country should not be allowed to affect the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative in the 11 front line states.
The environmentalist also urged the federal government to ensure that it implemented all environmental policies aimed at mitigating the impact of desertification in the country.
He commended the government for designing “good environmental policies“ but expressed concern at “the lack of political will to implement them”.
“They (Federal Government) should take these issues very serious because when the land is degraded due to erosion, oil spillage, desertification and all forms of land degradation, the resulting effect is that it will affect the livelihood of the people.
“It will render people jobless, and if people don’t have something to do, you know the consequences – there will be social, economic, and security threat to the country.
“The government should always give it the required attention that it deserves; the policies that we have on paper should be fully implemented.
“Also, the people that are capable of doing the job should be placed in the proper positions so that the job could be done effectively; so that we will achieve result at the end of the day.“