Former Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan has called on the United Nations, the African Union, and development partners to urgently revisit and revive the Great Green Wall project as part of a broader strategy to address insecurity and poverty in the Sahel region.
Jonathan made the call while speaking at the maiden edition of the Sahel Governance Forum hosted in Banjul, The Gambia. He noted that while the Sahel continues to attract global attention from institutions like the World Bank and the UN, much of that attention has been linked to issues of terrorism, banditry, and recurring crises rather than long-term solutions for stability and growth.
Reflecting on his concerns about the outcomes of endless conferences, the former Nigerian leader stressed the importance of ensuring that deliberations translate into actionable strategies. According to him, the Sahel has been trapped in cycles of poverty and insecurity because of its fragile climate, weak agricultural capacity, and limited economic opportunities. He explained that agrarian communities in the Sahel farm for only about four to five months in a year, leaving long periods of idleness and poverty that feed unrest and instability.
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Jonathan drew parallels between the Sahel and Somalia, pointing out that both regions share similar climatic conditions and vegetation that expose them to cycles of drought, famine, and conflict. He added that parts of northern Nigeria, including Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Katsina, Jigawa, and Kano, are within this fragile Sahelian belt.
The former president recalled that the effects of droughts and famine in the 1970s had triggered mass migration and religious uprisings in Nigeria, such as the Maitatsine riots, underscoring how environmental collapse often fuels violence. He argued that the lesson from history is clear: unless governments and partners make deliberate investments in wealth creation in the Sahel, insecurity will persist.
Highlighting measures his administration undertook, Jonathan said two key interventions stood out. The first was the rehabilitation of irrigation projects in northern Nigeria, with the goal of enabling farmers to cultivate at least two to three times annually. He noted that this policy was essential to lifting agrarian communities out of poverty and creating opportunities for the youth.
The second initiative, according to him, was Nigeria’s push to revive the Great Green Wall project, an ambitious trans-African reforestation effort aimed at halting desert encroachment from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Jonathan revealed that despite the absence of a budget line for the project in 2015, his administration released ₦10 billion from the ecological fund to kick-start the programme under the Ministry of Environment.
“I don’t know what has happened to the project since then, but it remains a vital intervention that must not be abandoned,” Jonathan said, urging the UNDP, the World Bank, and the AU to provide the technical and financial support needed while African governments play their part.
Jonathan emphasized that creating wealth in the Sahel is the most sustainable pathway to addressing insecurity, banditry, and terrorism in the region. He argued that if farmers are empowered to produce food throughout the year and the environment is rehabilitated through reforestation, young people will have fewer reasons to resort to violence or criminality.
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He concluded by charging participants and moderators at the forum to focus less on abstract technical discussions and more on practical solutions that will directly transform livelihoods in the Sahel. “My request is simple: let everybody tell us how to create wealth in this fragile environment where people find it difficult to survive,” he said.
The forum, jointly organized by the UNDP and the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in collaboration with the Gambian government, is expected to produce actionable policy recommendations on governance, security, and sustainable development in the Sahel.
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