N’djamena – Nigerien President, Issufou Mahamadou, has emerged the Chairman of the Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).

This is contained in a communique issued at the end of the 14th Summit of the Commission held at N’djamena, the capital of Chad.

President Goodluck Jonathan led the Nigerian delegation to the summit on Monday and has since returned to Abuja.

A copy of the communiqué made available to correspondent covering the summit in N’djamena said Mahamadou would hold the position for a two-year term.

NAN reports that the host President, Idris Deby, handed over the batton of leadership of the six member-nation organisation to Mahamadou.

It will also be recalled that Jonathan had handed over the leadership of the organisation to Deby at the 13th Summit of the Commission in N’djamena on Nov. 1, 2010.

NAN reports that the next summit of the LCBC has been fixed for Niamey, the Nigerien capital in 2014.

The summit was attended by President Francois Bozize of Central African Republic and the representatives of the Presidents of Cameroon and Libya.

In his acceptance speech, Mahamadou thanked his colleagues for their trust in him and assured that he would lead the organisation in line with its objectives.

The summit also ratified the appointment of a Nigerian, Mr Sanusi Abdullahi, as the Executive Secretary of the LCBC.

Abdullahi was appointed to complete the tenure of the former Executive Secretary, Dr Umar Ganduje, which will expire in May 2013.

NAN recalls that Ganduje, the incumbent Deputy Governor of Kano State, had resigned his appointment as LCBC Executive Secretary to contest the election in 2011.

The summit also adopted the LCBC five-year investment plan and enjoined its secretariat to organise a donors’ conference to fund the investment.

Abdullahi had earlier disclosed that the investment plan was put in place to raise fund for a water transfer project from Oubangi basin to Lake Chad Basin.

According to him, the project estimated at the cost of 14.5 US Dollars was intended to reverse the drastic shrinking of the Lake Chad Basin.

The summit also resolved to reactivate its Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad by extending its mandate to protecting the common borders of member-states.

To this effect, the summit called on Cameroon and all other member-states to participate in the joint task force.(NAN)