BY AHMAD SALKIDA AND ABUBAKAR KUNDIRI

If you had to choose the fate of Lake Chad, which would you prefer: an oil and gas rich region or a rich eco-diversity driving prosperity through agribusiness? President-elect, Muhammad Buhari, has dropped the hint that his administration would re-open oil prospecting in the Lake Chad Basin. On a face value, this sounds wise and reassuring to the political elites from the north of the country who not only treasure the allure of petro-wealth but love the idea that oil bragging right could also be theirs.

Lake Chad shoreline had an elevation of about 286 metres (938 ft) above sea level and it had an area of more than 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq miles), making its surface the fourth largest in Africa, bigger than countries like Israel and Kuwait way back in 1963. Over the years, agriculture have comprised productive activities ranging from livestock to crop cultivations. Farmers produce food, fabrics and wood. From their array of value chain such as dairy products, fish, meat, grain and cotton agric business bring to the table a wide array of employment opportunities not open to any other economic sector.

Unfortunately, the Lake has not only shrunk to over 90% from 1963 to date but it now plays host to the infamous Boko Haram insurgency that has killed, maimed and displaced hundreds of thousands of the lake’s inhabitants. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC or CBLT in French) maintain that deficit in rainfall, drought, inefficient damming and irrigation methods are mainly responsible for the shrinking lake.

The discoveries of oil in Niger Republic, especially, in the Doba Basin (part of Chad Basin), raises hope of similar discovery in the Nigerian sector of the Chad Basin, and when geologists state with some measure of authority that the Borno Basin and the Benue Trough within Nigeria are all one part of a series of cretaceous and inter rift basins, it leads to the conclusion that discovery of oil and gas was a matter of time. With oil wealth envisaged by all in the region, attention shifted from investments in agriculture in the Lake Chad region to oil exploration.

According to Solomon Abaa, a leading geologist and former chair Professor of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) center in the University of Maiduguri, Chad Basin constitutes an extensive stretch of gas shores in Nigeria, “with some 160 trillion cubic feet.” Several exploration activities in Lake Chad indicated huge deposits of oil and gas. But globally trending interest in alternative energy sourcing gradually diminished the prospects of oil as a sustainable source of revenue and wealth for nations. Also, corruption, neglect and resulting conflicts have taken their toll as it is the case in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria.

While oil revenue remains a strong driver of aggravated corruption in public places, agribusiness is totally different. Agribusiness and eco-diversity as a policy focus for the coming administration will not only create wealth it will ensure that the wealth so created domiciles with the people. It ensures that the people are empowered. It ensures that leakages associated with official transactions do not constitute the face of governance in that region of the country. It ensures that employment opportunities are escalated and that other sectors such as tourism are handed easy triggers for growth.

Lake Chad that covers 8 percent of the surface area of the African continent is stretched around one of the most troubled and poorest parts of the world. The shrinkage of the Lake has been driven by both global and local causes: climate change and vastly increased competing demands on the lake. The depletion of Lake Chad poses a pressing challenge to irrigated agriculture which is an important water consumer and the source of livelihoods for the overwhelming majority of the population. Between 75 and 80 percent of the farming population consists of traditional small holders, producing mainly staple foods for household consumption and with relatively marginal connections to market.

The problem of Lake Chad is actually manifold, ranging from the variability of the hydrological regime to the dramatic decrease in freshwater availability. The relatively high rating of water pollution mainly due to commercial cotton and rice production known to use large quantities of agro-chemicals. Other problems include the low viability of biological resources relating to the inability of the regenerative rates of plant and animal resources to keep pace with exploitation which on its own has aggravated loss of biodiversity as well as damages to the ecosystem.

The prospects for saving Lake Chad does not only brighten the future of over 30 million people that depend on the lake but it reduces poverty which is one of the biggest source of conflict and reasons for the significant increase in radicalism in the Sahel. As part of an effort to address the current challenges in the Basin, a seminar “Adaptive Water Management in the Lake Chad Basin: Addressing Current Challenges and Adapting to Future Needs,” was convened in 2009 by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Stockholm Germany.

The seminar attended by more than 50 participants representing riparian countries, donors and other institutes, identified the causes of the current environmental degradation to be mainly global climate change, unsustainable policy decisions, lack of good policy and lack of political will especially on the part of member states of the LCBC to drive development and change. There are eight member governments, mainly Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, – the Central African Republic, Algeria Libya and Sudan – are chosen for their proximity to the Lake Chad Basin.

However poor coordination by member nations of the LCBC, have been attributed to the continual degradation of the Lake Chad Basin. The Commission has put on the drawing board a plan to replenish the lake by building a dam and 60 miles of canals to pump water uphill from the Congo River to the Chari River and then on to Lake Chad. The replenishment project “will be the first of its kind in Africa,” says Martin Gbafolo, the LCBC’s director of water resources and environment. Efforts, however, are still on raising fund to pay for the feasibility study.

Already the World Bank is providing $10.6 million for a project to reverse land and water degradation in parts of the lake. In addition, the LCBC is educating livestock herders on gaining access to grazing and watering areas. Water users are taught efficient water-utilization methods and fishermen more appropriate techniques for catching fish. Scientists have however insisted that attention must be paid to the final quality of the water resulting from mixing the waters of the Lake Chad Basin and the Oubangui, as well as the effect this will have on the ecosystems.

But investments in agriculture in the Lake has the potentials to transform the area to one of biggest eco and bio-diversity hub in the world. For example, the world’s most formidable economies are those with agribusiness at the foundation of the economic tree. Such countries include United States of America, Israel, and several EU countries. Whether it is oil exploration or water transfer in the Lake Chad, both projects come with huge cost to the ecosystem but the former is the lesser evil if conservation mechanism are adopted and security in the troubled region is taken seriously. The Lake Chad Vision for 2025 highlighted a number of important issues deduced from the existing situation in the lake’s drainage basin. The document identified three major objectives; namely, (i) maintenance of Lake Chad and other wetlands of the region at sustainable levels for the economic security of the freshwater ecosystem resources, sustained biodiversity and aquatic resources of the basin and their equitable use, the alleviation of poverty; (ii) acceptance of responsibilities for freshwater, ecosystem as well as biodiversity conservation and judicious integrated river basin management by regional and national authorities; and (iii) equitable access by Member States to safe and adequate water resources to meet their needs and rights

Salkida is a freelance journalist/conflict analyst and Kundiri is a Professor of soil and Water Management.

https://www.thecable.ng/chad-basin-oil-prospect-agric-prosperity
Mapet, laudate sagamite obinoscopy anonimi modath

raumdeuter baba your input is needed

@Amoto94,

can I get some clarifications here;
1. What is the source of this article?
2. Is the following quote under not in bad faith ?

"On a face value, this sounds wise and reassuring to the political elites from the north of the country who not only treasure the allure of petro- wealth but love the idea that oil bragging right could also be theirs."

mapet:
@Amoto94,

can I get some clarifications here;
1. What is the source of this article?
2. Is the following quote under not in bad faith ?

"On a face value, this sounds wise and reassuring to the political elites from the north of the country who not only treasure the allure of petro- wealth but love the idea that oil bragging right could also be theirs."

Source:salkida.com/lakechad-oil-prospects-or-agric-prosperity/
I don't think the quote is in bad faith as this will also spur other regions to look inward and develop their Agric sector.

Amoto94:
Source:salkida.com/lakechad-oil-prospects-or-agric-prosperity/
I don't think the quote is in bad faith as this will also spur other regions to look inward and develop their Agric sector.

Fair enough........ my thoughts are these

1. The lines between the quest for Oil and Agric starts from being parallel the intersect if we are wise
2. Countaries like UAE, Qatar, Malaysia etc have used their Oil wealth for rapid infrastructure development and investments in which Agri-business is one key area
3. The quest to find Oil is something Oil producers continually do. Oil when found continues to either deplete or unrecoverable. Oil producers focus on reserves replacements and that is why it is important to find more oil. Oil WILL bounce back to her respectable heights
4. We can leverage on both to strengthen our economy....

Besides Salkida will naturally write from the perspective of humanist orientation, while I see things from a Capitalist POV. Neither is wrong.

mapet:


Fair enough........ my thoughts are these

1. The lines between the quest for Oil and Agric starts from being parallel the intersect if we are wise
2. Countaries like UAE, Qatar, Malaysia etc have used their Oil wealth for rapid infrastructure development and investments in which Agri-business is one key area
3. The quest to find Oil is something Oil producers continually do. Oil when found continues to either deplete or unrecoverable. Oil producers focus on reserves replacements and that is why it is important to find more oil. Oil WILL bounce back to her respectable heights
4. We can leverage on both to strengthen our economy....

Besides Salkida will naturally write from the perspective of humanist orientation, while I see things from a Capitalist POV. Neither is wrong.

You are right in some of the points you raised; like failure of past leaders to invest in infrastructures and Agric during the oil boom, oil will always remain relevant till the next century so more is needed to shore up the reserves. Exploration should also be carried out in States like Osun and Ogun

Lemme read

Hmmmmm

->I will go with agriculture.
->It is a major source of income and also helps to maintain ecosystem and as well curtail global warming.(ie it serves two purposes)
->Crude oil on the other hand is not profitable as it is used to be and it does great damage to the environment and the ecosystem.
->The choice is left for Buhari to choose the one he wants.

I dnt understand

This write up is long o.
The president is doing both, he has been pushing hard for reviving agriculture on that axis. Infact that was the major reason why he was in paris.

President Muhammadu Buhari on
Tuesday in Paris urged developed
countries to make strong financial
commitments to the 14 billion
dollars urgently needed to revive
the Lake Chad Basin.
The president stated this at a high
level meeting on “Climate change
challenges and solutions in Africa’’,
on the sidelines of the on-going UN
Climate Change Conference, COP 21.



www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/12/buhari-challenges-world-leaders-on-14bn-dollars-lake-chad-revival-fund/


www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/buharis-strong-case-for-lake-chad/

theeagleonline.com.ng/in-paris-buhari-makes-strong-case-for-lake-chad-by-garba-shehu/


There is nothing wrong pushing for both.

I go for Agric prosperity

Reading , well I wish the people of lake Chad "good luck"









ThefakeStan

The price of a barrel of oil is now $28, the cost of production of one barrel is about $20, there is a differential of about $8. Assuming Nigeria produces and is able to sell 2m barrels per day, we have 16million dollars per day as revenue. There are 170 million of us, which means theoretically each of us will get (16,000,000/170,000,000) = 0.094 dollars for each person.

0.094*305= N28.67 for every Nigerian/day.

This of course is very rudimentary economics, the aim nonetheless is to show the dire straits that will be driven home to Nigerians shortly.

Nigeria you have no idea what is staring you in the face!

God bless Nigeria

hmm

Which ever it is.....make money just comot ni temi

Amoto94:
You are right in some of the points you raised; like failure of past leaders to invest in infrastructures and Agric during the oil boom, oil will always remain relevant till the next century so more is needed to shore up the reserves. Exploration should also be carried out in States like Osun and Ogun

I think dere is an exploration goin on at ode-omi (ogun waterside)and ipokia ,all ogun state

mapet:
@Amoto94,

can I get some clarifications here;
1. What is the source of this article?
2. Is the following quote under not in bad faith ?

"On a face value, this sounds wise and reassuring to the political elites from the north of the country who not only treasure the allure of petro- wealth but love the idea that oil bragging right could also be theirs."

you are right,that quote is in bad faith...the language use is wrong..anyway nice writeup

hope its d revenue from gworo will be used for this unprofitable ventures.....

Agriculture prospect for me.

Too much oil in the market.. and the price might npt go up again.. unless some countries are sanctioned thus reducing the oil... (which may not happen .. people are wiser now)

If the price hits 20 dollars... IOCs cease production.. yep.. cost of production is between 10 to 30.. depends


Nigeria can barely sustain its budget so why spend that much on experiment...

Agriculture already had huge prospects due to massive funding and innitiatives from the past administration.

Diverting fund to look for oil might actually result in the already succesful Agric sector being left to decay

God forbid oil is not found there... God forbid.. or it will be back to square one

Misplaced Priority is what we see in this sham and scam government. #onechanceindeed

Summary pls

Agriculture is it.

Hahaha haha, Italian laughter,,,,,,, Lake Chad of Nigeria is just 1/10 of the lake, THERE IS NO OIL IN LAKE CHAD OF NIGERIA, political Geologist should stop this foolishness.

Ok

I go for AGRICULTURAL CRUDE OIL

Imagine lake that is now own by dangerous boko haram is where they are looking for oil. Una name na sorry.

All they have found is Gas shows( Gas show----Gas that rises to the surface, usually detected because it reduces the density of the drilling mud. Gas detectors, which the mud logger monitors, measure combustible gases (methane, ethane, butane and others). The mud logger reports total gas, individual gas components, or both, on the mud log. In extreme cases, gas visibly bubbles out of the mud as it returns to the surface. Because the mud does not circulate to the surface for a considerable time, sometimes lagging several hours after a formation is drilled, a gas show may be representative of what happened in the wellbore hours (or many feet) prior to the ) no one has discovered oil in the Borno Basin which is our own part of the Chad Basin. Geologically two reasons are given :

1 Nigeria is far from the depocenter of Chad Basin.

2 The intrusion of the Jurassic Younger Granite has has gasified any oil that might have been available there.