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.
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