Vice President Kashim Shettima on Wednesday called for the revival of Lake Chad to enhance all-year farming and support the Green Revolution Project.
He made the call at the United Nations Food Systems Summit +4 (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Vice President spoke at a panel on “Country Perspectives: Government-led Strategies and Regional Frameworks.” 
He said the revival of the Lake Chad region, threatened by multidimensional challenges, was crucial to rebuilding sustainable and inclusive food systems in the region and across Africa.
Shettima identified the challenges to include environmental degradation, climate change, humanitarian crises, and conflict.
According to him, addressing the multidimensional challenges requires a multi-pronged approach, development initiatives, conflict resolution, regional cooperation, and large-scale infrastructure.
He challenged African nations to desist from charity and long-term aid from the developed world, as they are not sustainable solutions for Africa’s development and may even be detrimental.
“We believe charity is not the answer. In Africa, we say that when you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day,” he stated.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s administration has designed a comprehensive strategy to address food security challenges, which mostly impact vulnerable citizens in conflict-affected regions.
” Our target is to attain food sovereignty. So long as a nation is not independent in the area of food sovereignty, it remains a non-sovereign nation.
“President Tinubu declared a State of Emergency on food security, not out of fear, but out of genuine concern for the welfare of our people.
“This is especially in conflict-driven environments like the North East, where Boko Haram was sowing seeds of discord and destruction,” the Vice President added.
