WORST OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IS OVER, SATS BUHARI

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said the worst of the Boko Haram insurgency was over in Nigeria.

He said the major task before the country now was how to rehabilitate the about 2.4m Nigerians displaced by the sect and reconstruct the North-East part of the country which was the epicentre of their terror activities.

Buhari spoke while inaugurating the Presidential Committee on the North-East led by a former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.).



The President described the inauguration of the committee as a milestone in his administration’s desire to restore stability to the North-East.

He said the committee was meant to coordinate all humanitarian efforts aimed at rebuilding the region.

Buhari said, “The devastation of human lives and livelihoods by the insurgency in the North-East is severe, with more than an estimated 20,000 persons killed, an estimated 2.4m persons displaced and billions of naira worth of personal and public assets destroyed.

“Many humanitarian intervention efforts, national and international, have worked overtime to assist in coping with the task of bringing succour to the Internally Displaced Persons in and outside the region, with most of these efforts aimed at providing short-term emergency assistance and relief to the victims of the violence and displacement.

“However, there remains a need for better coordination of these efforts, particularly the humanitarian resettlement and reconstruction of the region.

“Fortunately, the worst of the insurgency is behind us. This we owe principally to the valiant efforts of our military whose gallant efforts have significantly degraded the insurgency.”

The President said the committee would serve as the apex coordinating body for all interventions in the region, including those by the public, private, national and international development partners.

He said, “With these successes, many displaced persons are willing and ready to return home to pick up their lives and move forward.

“However and sadly so, many have nothing to return to. They have lost everything to the insurgency. In addition, social and public services are also absent due to the massive destruction of public and private infrastructure.”

According to him, the committee, which is domiciled in the Presidency, is charged with the responsibility for developing the strategy and implementation framework for rebuilding the North-East.

He said the committee would exist for three years and would be funded through federal, state and local governments’ appropriations, as well as funds from the private sector and international development partners.

While harping on accountability and transparency, Buhari also urged the committee to take a quick look at the conditions of the IDPs and take urgent remedial measures to alleviate their conditions.

Danjuma, in his response, said out of N50bn raised earlier for the purpose, only N23bn was redeemed.

He said although the committee had the list of donors who had yet to redeem their pledges, he would not embarrass them.

“We have the list of those who made pledges but we will not embarrass them. We beg them to come forward and redeem their pledges because reconstruction is very expensive and we need all the money,” he said.

Danjuma regretted that most of the states in the North-East were in precarious situations and in dire need of humanitarian support, reconstruction and peace-building interventions.