Borno State Governor Kashim Shetima has warned that a catastrophe greater than Boko Haram insurgency would befall the North if the elites and public officials do not deliver good governance and cater for the masses in by providing quality education.
The governor spoke at the graduation of 76 girls from secondary schools, including 42 Chibok girls and 34 others who were victims of sectarian violence in Plateau State, yesterday.
The girls were sponsored by an Abuja-based Non-Governmental Organisation, Girl Child Concerns (GCC).
Shettima, who chaired the occasion, lamented that there are at least 100,000 orphans and widows, occasioned by the insurgency, who must be provided for to stop them from becoming a menace to the society.
His words: “By 2050, 70 per cent of Nigerians will live in northern Nigeria. Presently, only 53 per cent are there, with desertification, endemic poverty, pervasive illiteracy, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that what awaits us is a fate worse than Boko Haram.
“Women and children bore the brunt of madness in Borno. According to statistics by the World Bank, in partnership with the European Union and the Presidency, Boko Haram created 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans. If we don’t care for these orphans and widows now, 10 or 15 years down the line, they will become the Frankenstein monsters that will drive us out of this land.
“Seated here are 42 of our girls from Chibok, they are here with other vulnerable girl-child victims of sectarian violence in Plateau State.
“One other painful aspect of the Chibok abduction is that it exposed my concern about the poor quality of our public schools, only those who have been to the deepest valley will appreciate what it is to be on top of the mountain.
“If not for access to western education, I might be rearing goats or be a Quranic scholar somewhere in Maiduguri, because I am a son of a Quranic scholar but today, I am a first generation graduate in my family.”
The governor reiterated there is no option than to fund public education. “For us in Northern Nigeria, we have no option than to invest in education, it is the greatest game changer. For us the elites, we have to invest in the poor or the poor will keep us from sleeping.
“We are the elites, if we go to the interiors, and meet with the common man, there is contempt in their faces for us. We must wear our thinking cap and work for the people, and the most important yardstick is the quality of governance. There is more to leadership than primitive accumulation of capital, there is a certain point when the lifestyle of somebody with N20 million is virtually the lifestyle of somebody with N100 million.
“We must work for the people, create jobs, invest in education, and create the work station for our youths. There is nothing special about oil; human resource is the most important. Chibok is 70 per cent Christian and that is why we have a moral obligation to cultivate the culture of tolerance and inclusivity. That is why I am paying undivided attention to the Chibok girls.”
Shetima praised GCC and its Board chairperson, Dr. Mairo Mandara, describing her as a “daughter of Borno in whom we are well pleased.”
Dr. Mandara said the group’s specific intervention include providing educational opportunities for girls from poor rural communities, mentoring and life skills development, sensitisation on civil rights, and gender equity.
Mandara, who is also the Country Representative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), said the organisation has had a strong focus in the last six years, on meeting the educational and social needs of young girls affected by social unrest in Plateau, and by insurgency in the northeast.
According to her, GCC has been supporting 500 women living in various IDPs camps, saying her organisation was given the responsibility of catering for the escapee Chibok girls.
Mandara said: “It was difficult getting a school for them. When we got custody of these girls, schools refused to accept them for fear of consequences which could follow if the girls were discovered there.
“In another school, some parents threatened to withdraw their children if the girls were offered admission.”
