By Aliu Akoshile
Nigeria’s climate resilience agenda will not be finalised in conference rooms alone. It will be won in communities where desertification shrinks farmland, where floods displace families, and where access to water determines whether a season succeeds or fails. It is in those exact spaces that Senator AbdulAziz Abubakar Yari, Zamfara West, has demonstrated the kind of leadership Nigeria needs.
From his distinguished tenure as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to his current role as Senator of the 10th National Assembly, Senator Yari has consistently shown that climate action is about governance, people, and results.
*A leader who put ecology on the national agenda*
Senator Yari’s commitment to environmental governance came to the fore during his time as NGF Chairman. At an emergency meeting in Abuja, he led governors to confront ecological devastation — desertification in the North, oil spills in the Niger Delta, and erosion in the South East — with the urgency it demanded.
“We, as governors, have the responsibility to sit down and discuss this issue and chart the way forward,” he declared. Under his leadership, the Forum took the matter to the National Economic Council, framing climate not as a side issue, but as a national economic priority requiring funding and partnerships.
That intervention was visionary. At a time when climate was often treated as technical, Senator Yari positioned it as a governance issue central to livelihoods and prosperity.
*Driving water security and adaptation from the Senate*
Today, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Water Resources and Sanitation, Senator Yari is at the center of Nigeria’s adaptation strategy.
Water security, irrigation, rural water supply and sanitation are now frontline issues in a warming climate. Through his committee, Senator Yari has championed expanded access to potable water, including solar-powered boreholes for underserved communities, and rigorous oversight to ensure federal water projects deliver on resilience goals.
In a country where 86 million people still lack access to safely managed drinking water, according to UNICEF, this leadership is timely and critical. His work ensures that water policy translates directly into boreholes, irrigation, and flood control for the people who need them most.
*The Zamfara model: leadership that delivers*
The most visible expression of Senator Yari’s commitment is in Zamfara, where environmental shocks meet economic pressure — and where his response has been swift, compassionate and structural. When severe floods swept through Gummi LGA in August 2024, Senator Yari mobilized 15 trucks of relief materials — rice, millet and maize — alongside 5,000 mattresses and 10,000 blankets. He also set up an assessment committee and immediately pledged support for rebuilding.
That pledge is now reality. Construction is underway on 3,000 housing units for flood victims in Gummi, designed to provide durable shelter and reduce future displacement. It is leadership that goes beyond relief to build lasting solutions.
On food security, Senator Yari has been equally proactive. In June 2026, he facilitated 85 trucks of fertilizer to Zamfara farmers at a subsidized rate of ₦30,000 per bag, cushioning them against rising input costs. He has also distributed 145 truckloads of maize and 42,000 bags of Semovita to about 210,000 residents across all 14 LGAs.
Through a three-year humanitarian programme, over 1.7 million beneficiaries in Zamfara have been reached — a testament to his commitment to social protection as a pillar of climate resilience.
Senator Yari has also invested in the human capital that drives adaptation. In November 2023, over 1,000 patients benefited from free eye treatments and surgeries. In June 2024, he launched a scholarship program supporting 1,700 underprivileged students with about ₦216 million for tuition and upkeep. Healthy, educated families are more resilient. That is the thinking behind these interventions — strengthening people to withstand drought, floods, and economic stress.
*Connecting national policy to community impact*
Senator Yari’s leadership mirrors the Federal Government’s new spatial approach to climate and livelihoods, including the plan to reserve 33,000 hectares outside Abuja for organized livestock settlements. Both approaches recognize a fundamental truth: you cannot ban livelihoods, but you can plan for them. You cannot stop climate shocks, but you can prepare communities to withstand them.
With federal standards, state delivery, and private sector participation, this is the partnership model Senator Yari has long advocated — and the model through which programmes like the Great Green Wall, irrigation expansion, and rural water supply will succeed.
*Leadership for the moment*
Nigeria faces more heat, more unpredictable rains, and more pressure on land and water. In this season of compounding shocks, the country needs leaders who can translate policy into trust, and trust into action. Senator AbdulAziz Yari has done exactly that. As NGF Chairman, he forced a national conversation on ecology. As a Senator, he now chairs the committee guarding Nigeria’s water future. In Zamfara, he is building homes, supporting farms, and investing in people.
This is not loud work. It is steady, purposeful work. And it is the kind of leadership that will define whether Nigeria’s climate resilience agenda succeeds. The measure will be simple: next dry season, is there water? Next rainy season, is there shelter? Next planting season, is there support for farmers?
Thanks to Senator Yari’s vision and commitment, in Zamfara and at the national level, the answer is increasingly yes. That is leadership. That is the work that counts.
Aliu Akoshile is a communications strategist and media consultant based in Abuja.
