Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, has vowed to ‘recharge’ the Lake Chad if elected president come 2023.
The former Lagos State Governor made the promise on Tuesday during the inauguration of the commercial production of crude oil and gas from the Kolmani Integrated Development Project.
While speaking on the issue of food scarcity and terrorism, Tinubu said “Each time we discuss the lack of food and the challenges of terrorism, you will talk about Lake Chad.
“Let me assure you, if I am elected the president, I will ‘recharge’ Lake Chad.”
Speaking about the oil drill production which was the first in the North, the former Lagos State governor stated that the inauguration was a “renewed hope” for the country.
Tinubu further linked the event to his manifesto titled ‘A Renewed Hope’.
He said, “While we were debating, I insisted that our title for the manifesto will be ‘a renewed hope’, not knowing that today will happen. And today, it is happening. It is a renewed hope for Nigeria.”
Located along the fields of Gombe and Bauchi, the Kolmani project, with Oil Prospecting Licence 809 and 810, lies in the Gongola Basin of the Upper Benue Trough, straddling the two Northern states.
The field, according to its promoters, is to start producing about 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day and holds over one billion barrels of crude oil reserves, shooting up Nigeria’s oil reserves to over 38 billion barrels.