Tensions flared within the House of Representatives on Wednesday as the ad-hoc committee scrutinizing the utilization of Ecological Funds and other intervention funds associated with the Great Green Wall Project questioned assertions made by the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW). The agency claimed to have expended a staggering N81 billion to plant 21 million trees in the frontline states of the northern region.
The states in focus include Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno. The committee, in its proceedings, also probed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding seven accounts maintained within the apex bank.
As revealed by a six-page document presented by the CBN, dated August 22, 2023, an amount totaling N9,465,960,382.57 has been housed in the agency’s account from the year 2015 up to the present time. Meanwhile, the Accountant-General of the Federation, represented by Deputy Director Irene Nwangwu, disclosed that the NAGGW had been credited with a cumulative sum of N19,377,726,506.95 from the Derivation & Ecology Accounts, starting from February 2019.
Additionally, the agency reportedly received an infusion of N11.023 billion as capital expenditure through the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (oAGF).
According to Nwangwu, the disbursement of N2.309 billion from the 2020 statutory 5% Ecological Fund was green-lighted by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The chairman of the committee, Isma’ila Haruna Dabo, and his fellow members voiced their dissatisfaction over the NAGGW’s purported extravagant expenditures that seemingly yielded insufficient results. The committee further accused the agency of veering away from its core mandate.
Dabo stated, “The projects like the Great Green Wall that we are investigating were primarily formulated to tackle some of these issues. The persistence of these challenges despite the substantial funds channeled into the program by the federal government and international partners necessitated this inquiry. In recent times, we’ve witnessed a significant surge in environmental challenges such as land degradation, deforestation, desertification, and drought, often attributed to the context of climate change.”