An appeal has been made to rich countries in the world to do something urgent to save the Lake Chad from extinction, arising from effects of climate change.
President Muhammadu Buhari made this plea when he received the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova, in Abuja on Thursday.
The President warned that failure to regenerate the Lake Chad will lead to another round of migration by people living in the areas.
Mr Buhari, who led seven ministers to an interactive meeting with the UNESCO chief, said Nigeria and the other countries of the Lake Chad Basin lacked the billions of dollars required to channel water from the Congo Basin into the lake to check its rapid depletion.
“Those living in the Lake Chad region have suffered untold hardship and displacement because of the violence perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists.
‘‘If there is no farming and fishing, they will dare the desert to migrate.
“Unless the developed countries make concerted efforts to complete the feasibility study, mobilize resources and technology to start the water transfer from the Congo Basin, the Lake Chad will dry up.
“The people will go somewhere and they will create problems for those countries,” the President told the visiting UN official.
President Buhari commended UNESCO’s support to Nigeria particularly on the ongoing rehabilitation work in the North East and reintegration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
He said the pathetic situation of IDPs requires immediate and urgent response from international organisations such as UNSECO to provide infrastructure, health and education for the people in the area.
The UNESCO Director-General, Mrs Bokova, who commenced a week-long visit to West and Central Africa on August 6, said she was in Nigeria to strengthen the organization’s programme in the areas of science and technology, gender and youth development, culture, water resources development, health and environment.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya