Gov. Shettima faults BBOG group for not visiting Chibok. "They make lots of noise from the cozy comfort of Abuja"
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Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima says that the Bring back Our Girls Group (BBOG) has never taken out time to visit Chibok community.
She told the Governor that she was in the state to flag off federal government micro finance free interest loan scheme to over 10,000 women across the 27 local government area of the state in collaboration with Hajiya Nana Kashim Shettima to address poverty among women of Borno who have tested the bitter side of the terrorists.
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Shettima stated this when Minister of women Affairs, Aisha Jumai Alhassan paid him a courtesy visit at the government house Maiduguri on Friday. Shettima said the protests could be seen as politically motivated since none of the members of the group has deemed it fit to visit the affected community.
"Just last week, we expended a whooping sum of N25 million first tranche for the education of the 56 Chibok school girls that escaped from the crunches of Boko Haram and none of the members of BBOG has visited Chibok to know about the feelings of the parents of the girls. They do not know what our people are going through. It is easy to talk but it is very difficult to work the talk. They can make a whole lot of noise from the cozy comfort of Abuja, they can dramatize the whole thing. Some of them are former minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and they know the protocol to follow before seeing the President, but they just wanted to create some drama.
"Believe me, we are making efforts to take care of the parents of the abducted Chibok girls and we are making efforts to educate the Chibok girls who escaped from the crunches of the Boko Haram. Majority of victims of Boko Haram are women and children. In Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno state, we have over 39,000 orphans and in Monguno local government area of the state, we have over 38000 of them and the same applies to other parts of the state. And yet no group or pressure group nor characters in the social media cares to know about this.
"It is our responsibility to take care of these widows and orphans or there would be a repetition of the circle in the next ten to twenty years. As communities are liberated from Boko Haram, those people that were held hostages by insurgents; those people that were used as human shield by the insurgents tend to cascade down to the nearest IDP camp and any time we get such people most of them come in a very bad shape. In spite of these challenges we are poised to rewrite the history and change the narrative but definitely you would hear very fantastic and funny stories which would sometimes amuse you and sometimes irritate you because there are politics involved; there is a local, national and international politics involved in all this melodrama that we are witnessing. It is very sad because our people are at the receiving end and some people are smiling to the bank on the agony of our people", Shettima said.
Shettima appealed to the Minister to partner Borno state government in addressing some of the challenges facing women and children in the state through her ministry.
Responding, the Federal Minister of women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Jumai Alhassan congratulated Governor kashim Shettima for his courage in steering the affairs of the state despite the security challenges and thanked him for the warm reception accorded to her and her entourage.
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