Shettima: Getting round ruins of insurgency

Since Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State took over the mantle of leadership on May 29, 2011 from his predecessor, security challenges from the Boko Haram insurgency have become the greatest threat  and setback to his administration up to date, despite his good intention to re-engineer the state and turn it around to fully pursue his government cardinal policy thrust of transforming Borno  state  into a small London.

But Shettima’s major headache is daily killings of innocent citizens, burnings and bombings of public and private properties across the state by  the Boko Haram insurgents who have completely terrorised the entire state and declared it their Jihad Headquarters in the past seven years.

But the coming of President Buhari   into power in 2015, has changed the situation.
A situation that frustrated Governor Shettima’s good policies and programmes for his people  if not for his steadfastness, perseverance, determination, zeal, confidence, firmness, intelligence, commitment and trust that had made him to still pursue the processes of restoration of peace in the state in collaboration with the federal government, Nigerian armed forces and vigilante volunteer groups.

With the level of wanton destruction of public and private structures and killings of human beings and insecurity, Governor Shettima stood firmed and focused  to ensure that his people no longer sleep with their eyes opened, they no  longer live in fear or jittery of  Boko Haram.
The activities of the insurgency left about 2 million IDPs in camps in the state capital Maiduguri.
The activities of the Boko Haram insurgents left hundreds and thousands of schools both primary, secondary and tertiary institutions either razed down or vandalized including the furniture, hospitals, clinics,  public water sources, public buildings like police stations, courts, LGC secretariats, Government Lodges, dispensaries, emirs’ palaces, district heads houses, mosques, churches, markets, banks, shopping complexes,  hotels, motor parks, public and private vehicles, Mopol barracks, military formations among others.

In order to restore the hope of the people and return Borno back to its lost glory of the ‘Home of Peace’, Shettima assiduously commenced with massive and aggressive public and private reconstruction, rehabilitation and resentment projects and  programmes spread across all the 20 LGAs of the state destroyed and  displaced by the insurgents starting with Kaga LGA, MMC, Jere LGA down to Konduga, Dikwa,  Bama, Gwoza, Mobbar and Askira/ Uba LGAs.

Presently, some reconstruction and rehabilitation works or projects have been completed and commissioned in Kaga, Dikwa and Bama LGAs while others are awaiting commission and resettlement  of  IDPs and agro allied poverty alleviation empowerment schemes for women and youths of the IDPs  to make them self reliant and useful to themselves as well as the society, as the governor has severally identified that  unemployment or lack of job for the teeming youths and poor level of education couple with poverty were the genesis of the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency in the state and north entirely.

Some of these people-oriented projects and programmes that have direct bearing on the IDPs and citizens have already been commissioned by  Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, national leader of APC and General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd), chairman , Presidential Committee  on Nigeria Support Fund for the Victims of Terriorism (Victims Support Fund) in Dikwa, Kaga and Bama LGAs respectively while those of Mobbar, MMC and Jere LGAs will be commissioned  alongside other projects from June 2017.

Shettima had at several occasion’s said that he personally wish to always pay tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari for coming to the rescue of Borno people and government, through NEMA for the provision of relief materials,  Nigerian armed forces for their gallantry and bravery as well as sacrifices, Presidential Committee on Victims Support Fund (VSF) for their support and assistance in funding most of the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects. Aliko Dangote Group for providing N2 billion Worth of  building materials for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects for the IDPs in some LGAs, SEMA for its effectivity in providing condiments to the IDPs and resettling them, individuals and organizations for their support,  international donors, humanitarian partners or groups, for their tremendous support,  other  security agencies including  the Civilian JTF and good people of Borno for their patience, resilience, understanding,  support and assistance in bringing back peace to Borno before government started rebuilding the destroyed structures where hundreds of public buildings and thousands of individual homes or houses and shops as well as hundreds of  schools and health centers have been reconstructed and rehabilitated.
Shettima categorically on many instances noted that the Government and people of Borno are highly indebted to all.

The governor’s efforts in this regard have helped in the  restoration of peace and  normalcy in most parts of the state which had resulted in the state Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, RRR, under the commissionership of a hardworking and competent academia, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum,  to embark on aggressive and massive all -year through reconstruction and rehabilitation works of the destroyed towns and villages with modern building materials and facilities, including solar energy power supply system of streets of the towns and villages, water supply sources, like boreholes in every settlement in addition to the modified farm centers initiated and cultivated for the rural farmers and IDPs, including women as well as distribution of poverty alleviation skills acquisition equipment, machinery and tools among other.
However, the stories cannot be complete without pointing out the need for more security.

But Shettima’s major headache is daily killings of innocent citizens, burnings and bombings of public and private properties across the state by the Boko Haram insurgents

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