Buhari Travels to Abidjan for Two-day UN COP-15 Conference

*Accompanied by four ministers, NSA, three other top officials
Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari is leading an eight-man Nigerian delegation to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, to attend a two-day United Nations organised conference on the future of land, regarding desertification, drought, degradation, rights, restoration and implications for national and world economies.

According to a statement issued yesterday, by presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari, who is also the President of the Great Green Wall in Africa, was accompanied on the trip by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Environment, Mohammed H. Abdullahi; his Agriculture counterpart, Dr. Mahmoud Mohammed and Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman H. Adamu.

Also, on the president’s delegation are the National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Monguno (rtd); Director General, of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar and Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri- Erewa.

Buhari, who would participate in a Summit of Head of States and Government from May 9th to 10th, 2022, joins world leaders at Sofitel Hotel, Abidjan, for the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with the theme “, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity.”

Top items on the agenda of the conference are drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment.
The convention aims to take action to ensure that land, the lifeline on the planet, continues to benefit present and future generations.  

To achieve the visionary objective of land restoration and balance, COP15 will bring together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future of sustainable management of one of the most precious assets, land.  

The convention would explore links between land and other key development issues, which would be discussed during the high-level segment, including a Heads of States Summit, high-level roundtables and interactive dialogue sessions.

COP 15 is a key moment in the fight against desertification, land degradation and drought. Accordingly, it would build on the findings of the second edition of the Global Land Outlook and offer a concrete response to the interconnected challenges of land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss as the world steps into the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.