American Billionaire Jeff Bezos Praises Buhari over Nigeria’s Climate Actions
American billionaire and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has heaped praises on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for his leadership role in restoring degraded lands in the country.
This is as he described the commitment to restore 4 million hectares as exemplary.
Bezos said this in Glasgow, Scotland, when he joined Buhari, French President Emmanuel Macron; Prince Charles, and the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ghazouani at a COP 26 side event entitled “Accelerating land restoration in Africa, the case of the Great Green Wall initiative.”
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement titled ‘In Glasgow, American billionaire, Jeff Bezos, hails President Buhari’s climate change actions’.
Commending the President, at the event co-hosted by the French President, his Mauritanian counterpart, and the Prince of Wales, the retail tycoon said: ‘‘we are fortunate to have President Buhari of Nigeria with us today.
‘‘Nigeria plays a critical role in the restoration movement and has pledged to restore 4 million hectares of degraded lands. This kind of ambition coming from Africa’s largest economy underscores just how vital this issue is.’’
The Bezos Earth Fund has $10bn to allocate to projects fighting climate change.
Nigeria is due to assume the leadership of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall.
Buhari had used the occasion of his address to appeal to fellow leaders to continue to make concerted efforts at land restoration saying, ‘‘I am optimistic that Africa’s ambition of restoring over 100million hectares of the degraded landscape for productive agriculture is achievable.’’
The President also pledged Nigeria’s unalloyed commitment to expanding the achievements of the GGW program in Africa from the enviable status attained under the leadership of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania.
‘‘Together we commit to the transformative process of restoring the African degraded landscape and ultimately the continent’s environment,’’ he said.