A former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa, Professor Abdoulaye Bathily has joined the Advisory Board of NatureNews, Africa’s leading environment newspaper.
A statement signed by Publisher/CEO of NatureNews, Aliu Akoshile, said Professor Bathily brings to the board his unimpeachable pedigree as an erudite scholar, international diplomat, civil rights activist, multinational parliamentarian and politician with deep local roots.
The statement said Professor Bathily who was a Vice President of Senegalese National Assembly and a two-time Presidential candidate in the Senegalese general elections also represented Senegal in the ECOWAS Parliament and was Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
Mr. Akoshile noted that Professor Bathily served at different times as Minister of Environment and Nature Conservation; Minister of Energy and Water Resources; and Minister of State in the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal.
He said Prof. Bathily, who earned a PhD in History from the University of Birmingham in 1975, was the Chairman of the Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (NESDA) and Chairman of the Committee of African Ministers of Environment.
The advisory Board which was inaugurated on Tuesday has the King (Emir) of Dutse in the north western Nigeria and Chancellor of Sokoto State University, Alhaji (Dr.) Nuhu Muhammad Sanusi, as chairman, with the Kenyan environmental activist and founder, Friends of Lake Turkana, a UNESCO heritage site in the East African Rift Valley, Ms. Ikal Angelei, as member.
Other members, according to the statement, includes the Chairman of Stanbic Bank of Tanzania and three-time Minister and member of the Steering Committee of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) International Resource Panel, Professor Mark Mwandosya; and the consummate conservationist and Environmental Hero awardee of DW German TV network who is also President of Lekki Urban Forest & Animal Sanctuary Initiative (LUFASI), Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi.
Akoshile said the board also has distinguished Professor Salah Arafa, a member of the Egyptian National Committee on Climate Change and a member of the Research Council on Environment and Development at the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research and Technology; and Ms. Hawe Hamman Bouba, Executive President of the African Indigenous Women’s Organisation – Central Africa Network and member of Cameroon Human Rights Commission.
Other board members, according to NatureNews publisher, are the Harvard trained Dr. Namane Magau who was on the executive team of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and served as Executive Vice President of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; and the renowned environmental activist and laureate of the prestigious Thoroft Rafto Memorial prize, Architect Nnimmo Bassey who is Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation.
While inaugurating the Advisory Board, Aliu Akoshile said the choice of the members was to underscore the publisher’s vision of making NatureNews the authentic African voice on climate change and sustainable environment.
He thanked the members for accepting to lend their weights to the cause of development journalism which the newspaper, www.naturenews.africa, symbolises.
Akoshile said the board has the historic duty to help Africa overcome the challenges of climate change and create a sustainable living environment for 1.367 billion people in the continent.
