FG Will Address Humanitarian Challenges Of 8m In Northeast–Betta Edu

By Bukar Bolori

The Federal Government has revealed plans to address the humanitarian challenges of eight million victims of Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu gave the revelation during a visit to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

She noted that the federal government under the watch of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is prepared to address the humanitarian challenges of eight million victims of Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

The Minister further disclosed that about 15. 7 million vulnerable Nigerian households are in the federal government’s social register right now which amount to 62 million individuals, adding that the target of the federal government is to double these number of persons in the social register.

Edu, who was at Muna internally displaced persons ( IDPs ) camp in Maiduguri, a camp hosting about 52,000 displaced persons from various local government areas of the state, said to ensure that victims of the insurgency don’t fall into poverty, her entourage comprising management team of the ministry and humanitarian partners visited the IDPs camp, including rehabilitation centre for rescued Chibok Schoolgirls and repentant insurgents with family members at Bulumkutu for the purpose of seeing what is on ground.

She said: “We were there to see persons who are in need and how we can liaise with the state government, local government, humanitarian partners and even persons in the communities to ensure that we reach out to them.

“The President is not playing games with poverty eradication, he is not mincing words about it. His target is to pull millions of Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030. That is why we are out on the field, and we will continue to be in the field until we reach last person in this country.

“We are going to come back here with more durable solutions beginning with micro size and medium size enterprises among other things. We will be bringing solutions including shelters, livelihood programmes, reintegrating them into the society so that they can run their day to day lives and be able to fend for their families. Gone are the days that we are offering them only fish, we want to teach them how to cash fish,” the Minister said.

At the Government House Maiduguri where she and her entourage paid courtesy visit to the state Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, the minister informed him that she was in the state to see things on ground, noting that the visit was her first official outing since assumption of office.

She added that she has visited to see how the ministry can support the state to intervene in addressing the needs of the victims of insurgency.

The governor while welcoming her to the state, assured her that the state government will collaborate with her to address the challenges facing vulnerable citizens of the state .

At the Bulumkutu rehabilitation centre, she distributed bags of grains and jerricans of groundnut oil to the households there.

She also paid homage to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi who assured her of the emirate support at ensuring that her programmes in the state are successful.