CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL DUE TO BOKO-HARAM ATTACKs.....GENERAL ABUBAKAR

General Abdulsalami Abubakar

Yola—Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar

(retd), said yesterday that though the Boko Haram insurgency

was on the verge of being nipped in the bud, effects of the

magnitude of the human, economic and ecological problems

created by it would remain with the North East for a long

time.  General Abubakar made the observation in Yola at a two day

conference organized by Modibbo Adama University of

Technology,MAUTECH, the Nigerian Army and the Chad Basin

Commission, with the theme, Peace Building and

Reconstruction in the Chad Basin, attended by

representatives from Chad, Niger Republic, Cameroun,

Nigeria.

General Abubakar, who gave the keynote address, said the

forum should draw attention to the fight against insurgency.

He said all that was required was to help the communities

and the economy to place the region on an irreversible path

of economic growth and recovery.

Terror, according to General Abdulsalami is an enemy that

has been globally difficult to fight and the experience has not

been different.

“The imperatives of rebuilding social institutions economic

infrastructures and livelihood of displaced and settled citizens

are the benchmarks we need to judge the success of the war

against terror in our region,” he stated.

Giving a breakdown, he said figures as at November 2015

showed that there were 2,256,201 IDPs in Nigeria, 158,316 in

Cameroun, 66,639 in Chad and 47,023 in Niger.

He also gave frightening figures that as many as 952,029

children of school age were currently displaced among tens

of thousands of orphans, and losses amounting to $5.9

billion or N1.8 trillion.

In his speech, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Chief of

Army Staff, described the conference as a significant fight

against Boko Haram.

According to the Chief of Army Staff, it was the strategic

platform that made the Army achieved what has been

achieved so far.

He commended the other sister agencies which had made it

possible to degrade the capacity of the insurgents.

He particularly commended the Ambassador of Switzerland

for his country’s interest in the fight against insurgency.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Modibbo

Adama University of Technology, Yola. Prof. Kyari

Mohammed, said the major concern of the conference was

basically recovery, peace building, social cohesion and

sustainable, long-term development of the North-East in the

post Boko Haram insurgency period.