An environmental rights activist, Mr Eugene Abels has blamed the upsurge in violent crime in the North-East of Nigeria to the shrinking of the Lake Chad Basin.
Abels, who said this at a forum organised by the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria in Port Harcourt said that the shrinking Lake Chad Basin was a source of concern for both the Nigerian government and the international community.
According to him, the rise of the Boko Haram and other violent groups could be traceable to environmental factors.
Abels recalled that in 1936, the Associated Press had reports of efforts by the French authorities to save the Lake Chad from shrinking.
“The slow onset environmental change occurring in the Lake Chad Basin of the Sahel is not a recent phenomenon now, it is one that observers have only now begun to take note of.
“A bulletin published in June 1936 in the New York Times by the Associated Press reported on the efforts of French General, J.M Tilho to save Lake Chad, which has gradually decreased in size since Europeans had first discovered it 112 years previously. “Despite Tilho’s effort to change the course of a nearby tributary, this shared vital resources have continued to dwindle over the years and today, the issue has now become more pertinent than ever”, he said.
The Activist said that the shrinking Lake has affected the grazing around the Chad Basin making herders to move down southward in search of grazing pasture for their cattle.
“The increased struggle for the Lake’s natural resources had had economic, social and health related ramifications on a growing local population.
“The emergence of conflicts since 2009 due to violent extremist groups such as Boko Haram can be attributed to the slow-onset of environmental degradation.
In his word: “The fallout from Lake Chad had led to environmental problem, demographic pressure and violent criminal groups”.