Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State yesterday gave a chilling account of the Boko Haram terrorists’ activities in the North-East. “Tens of thousands of our innocent citizens were brutally killed; married and single women were abducted and raped; our sons were forced into becoming child-soldiers; more than two million citizens were internally displaced in camps and host communities in Maiduguri alone. “Others fled to different parts of Nigeria including Lagos, some fled to neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
About one million private houses were destroyed by insurgents across the 27 local government areas in the state,” the governor said. He, however, stated that the fight against the sect has largely been resultdriven since President Muhammadu Buhari came into office.
Speaking in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo paid him a visit, Shettima said he believes that if Obasanjo were the president in 2014 when the Chibok schoolgirls were kidnapped by the sect, the ex-president would have provided leadership that will lead to the recovery of the missing girls. Shettima said his administration conducted a post-conflict assessment of the crisis that was verified through satellite image and physical analysis, stressing that, “Borno has seen hell.”
Reeling out the devastating effects of the Boko Haram attacks on the state, Shettima said 5,335 classrooms and other school buildings were destroyed in primary, secondary schools and two tertiary institutions.
“A total of 512 primary schools, 38 secondary schools as well as two tertiary institutions: Umar Ibn Elkanemi College of Education, Science and Technology in Bama and College of Business and Management Studies in Konduga were affected,” he said. The governor explained further that 201 health centres, comprising mostly primary healthcare clinics, dispensaries and some General Hospitals, were affected across the 27 local government areas.
“A total of 1,630 water sources that include motorised boreholes, hand pumps, solar powered boreholes and facilities for piped water schemes were destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents,” Shettima added. He noted that 665 municipal buildings comprising ministry and local government buildings, prisons, police stations and electric offices were destroyed.
His words: “Also, 726 power distribution substations of 11 KV/415V and distribution lines of 415-230V were destroyed across the 27 local government areas of the state and so were destructions of our eco systems that include parks, game reserves, forest reserves, grazing reserves, green wall projects, orchards, ponds, river basins and lakes, some of which were either poisoned or bombed in 16 out of 27 local government areas.”
While bemoaning the lackadaisical attitude of the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in the fight against insurgency in the zone, the governor said: “Your Excellency, after the Chibok abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in April 2014, it took 19 days for me to receive a call from the Presidency.”
Speaking on the dedication of Obasanjo at ensuring that Nigeria stays as one indivisible country, Shettima said: “At some point, when governance was at its lowest ebb in this country in recent past, Obasanjo was the lone voice that told the truth to power.
He was the only elder statesman that openly stood up against the re-election of an administration that the entire world had condemned.
“Some senior citizens kept mute for fear of the unknown should the president win re-election and this is why they restrained themselves from speaking against a regime that had grossly failed Nigerians, especially on the area of national security. “At some point, Baba Obasanjo was the loudest voice speaking against poor handling of the security situation in Borno and rest of the northeast.
When others saw Maiduguri as a no-go-area, Obasanjo risked his safety and flew into Maiduguri in September 2011 and drove to a daring location to interface with the in-laws of late Mohammed Yusuf,” he said. In his response, Obasanjo, who is on a two-day visit to the state, commended the Buhari-led administration for its various efforts at ending insurgency in the state and the North-East at large.
While stating that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against Boko Haram, the former president expressed confidence in the capacity of the Nigerian military. He said: “I know that he (Buhari) is very, very concerned about the insurgency. He has gotten it right that first of all there must be military ascendency over the insurgents.
I think we are not out of the wood yet, but it appeared we can see the light beyond the tunnel. “There is no doubt that with the combined efforts at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level, even at the community level, that our security forces are on the ascendency over the forces of destruction and the menace of insurgency that we have experienced for almost six years now.”
Expressing delight that socio-economic activities had begun to pick up in Maiduguri after many years of the insurgency, Obasanjo said: “My experience from the airport to Government House is that what I experienced in 2011 is different from what I experienced today. “There is evidence that things are changing, the situation is improving. We pray that by the end of this year, no one will be in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp again.”
Obasanjo commiserated with “all our people in the state, and indeed the North-East, who have been victims of the insurgency in the way that we have never experienced in the country before.” “There is no family in this state that had not really suffered in one form or the other. Please accept my condolence and that of my entire family,” he said.
