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Tag: Chibok

  • U.S. reduces  surveillance flights seeking abducted girls

    U.S. reduces  surveillance flights seeking abducted girls

    WASHINGTON  – The United States reduced its surveillance flights to help find the more than 200  schoolgirls abducted in Chibok by Boko Haram, after building a body of intelligence and after other states ramped up support, a U.S. official said yesterday.

    Nigeria has committed itself to the hunt for the girls, who were kidnapped in April, and received help from the United States and other countries, including  neighbouring Cameroun,Chad and Niger.

    The senior U.S. defence official told Reuters that the U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights, first announced in May, were now flying at an “intermittent” rate.

    The official said overall intelligence-gathering had not diminished, and noted additional operations by Britain and France.

    “We had substantial initial coverage for the baseline and we’ve moved into a maintenance mode,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    The official declined to say how long the period of heightened initial U.S. coverage lasted. Asked whether it was just a week or two, the official said: “No. We were … building this baseline for a good period of time.”

    The Pentagon had said on Thursday that there were “around the clock” intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in support of Nigeria’s search. U.S. military personnel are in Abuja helping coordinate the effort.

    The United States also sent about 80 U.S. military personnel to Chad in May to support the surveillance operation. Chad lies to the northeast of Nigeria, bordering the area in which Boko Haram operates.

    In the last month U.S. officials have played down expectations about a swift rescue of the girls and stressed the limitations of intelligence gleaned from surveillance flights.

    One U.S. official spoke  of concerns that Boko Haram may have laid booby traps in areas the girls could be held and there have been reports that the girls may have been split up into small groups.

    “ISR alone will not solve this problem. It will take … the Nigerian piece of the equation with their own sources and human intelligence coupled with the other forms to really understand the picture,” the defence official said.

    In an opinion piece in the Washington Post  yesterday,President Goodluck Jonathan said his government and security services had “spared no resources, have not stopped and will not stop until the girls are returned home.”

    The defence official did not discuss specific U.S. intelligence but acknowledged that information gathered from different sources had left only a murky picture of where the girls might be, in how many groups and even in which country.

    “What is clear is a sense of dispersion that would contribute to pessimism in terms of the prospects for a successful rescue operation to be mounted by anyone, whether it’s the host nation or supported in any way by external actors,” the official said.

  • The ‘forgotten’ girls of Chibok

    The ‘forgotten’ girls of Chibok

    On Saturday, May 10, Wole Soyinka, professor and Nobel laureate, appeared ontheBritish Broadcasting Corporation’s programme, Hardtalk and added his voice to the growing international discourse on Nigeria, especially the issue of the disappearance, on April 15, of more than 250 schoolgirls from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. Among other things, Soyinka said: “The Nigerian nation-space is poised on a knife’s point; it is failing, but not beyond redemption. The rescue of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls and the outcome of the National Conference would help define the country’s future.”  Today, more than one month after, the opinion canvassed by the Nobel laureate remains fresh in our national psyche as the issue of the abducted Chibok girls remains unresolved.

    The country has been thrown into one huge, dramatic macabre dance since that midnight hostage-taking by the Boko Haram terrorists. The incident has drawn both the anger and dagger of civilised humanity all over the world who have continued, in no unmistaken terms, to condemn it as sordid and barbaric. Regrettably, two months down the line, what we have been witnessing are empty talks and promises of a phantom rescue operation to free the girls from their captors who are in no way ready to relax their stranglehold on them. With various pressure groups mushrooming daily all over the place, the whole thing has now ascended a crescendo of pulsating emotional gyration, ventilation of anger and global condemnation. Perhaps, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the entire global community is united in solidarity with the country.

    Many foreign countries have offered and are still offering assistance in several ways to help the country in its bid to rescue the abducted girls as well as defeat the terrorists who are now holding on to the country’s jugular. Everybody seems to be eager to get the girls out of the gulag. Unfortunately, days have turned into weeks and months, and nothing tangible or cheering has been on the horizon about the girls’ return to reunite with their loved ones. For the parents and relatives of the unfortunate girls, hope has turned into despair, and a big nightmare with no end in sight.

    While all these are going on, the military, saddled with engineering the release of the girls, appears to be stuck. On May 26, Alex Badeh, Air Marshal and Chief of Defence Staff, told a curious nation that the army have located the abducted Chibok girls. He said this while addressing members of the Citizen Initiative for Security Awareness (CISA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), who were on a solidarity campaign to the Defence Headquarters. He assured themthat everything was being done to ensure the girls’ safe rescue but he quickly chipped in that the military would not use force in the rescue operation. His words: “We want our girls back, I can tell you our military can do it, but where they are held, do we go with force? Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing. We can’t kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back. So we are working. The President has empowered us to do the work and no one should castigate the military”.

    Good talk. Except that many weeks after this promise, there is hardly anything to show that those girls are getting nearer to their freedom. In the first instance, many people opinethat what Badeh said was very unprofessional in that it was tantamount to playing to the hands of the enemy. Or else how does one view such a statement which is like giving away what could have been a closely guarded secret while the army strategises to free the girls? Why announce to the whole world that the army was aware of the location of the girls? The terrorists’ response will be to simply relocate the girls further into the wilderness to avoid any surprise from the army. This is why people believe the statement was either totally uncalled for or grossly lacking in military diplomacy.

    Just like Badeh has said, the issue of using force to free the girls may not be feasible. But what are the options available now to achieve that aim? Many people, including Shehu Sani, the human rights activist believed to have a channel through which the leadership of Boko Haram could be reached and engaged, have advocated dialogue as a way of breaking the logjam. Sani, it was, who facilitated the interface between former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the family of Mohammed Yusuf, the slain leader of the sect and other surviving leaders of the sect in Maiduguri in September, 2011. Although that visit generated a lot of controversies and even led to the death of some of the leaders of the sect who met with Obasanjo during the visit, it has, so far, remained the only serious interface anybody, either within the government or outside of it, has had with the sect.

    Now, the former President has come up with yet another suggestion that he could reach out to Boko Haram on the fate of the school girls, but regretted that the federal government has not given him the green light to act. In an interview on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation last week, Obasanjo said: “I have ways of reaching them (Boko Haram) but I have not been given the go ahead”. The former President expressed fear that some of the schoolgirls may never return home but added that the terrorists might free those found to be pregnant or have given birth. He also expressed worry that the girls might have been separated and kept in different locations.

    As if giving government’s reaction to Obasanjo’s statement, Mike Omeri, coordinator of the National Information Centre, recently created to brief the public on the war against the terrorists, said the former President didnot need any clearance from President Goodluck Jonathan before engaging in dialogue with the Boko Haram sect. Hewondered why Obasanjo would be waiting for any formal clearance from President Goodluck Jonathan when hehad unfettered access to him (Jonathan). He expressed surprise at the development and said: “The government has not stopped any individual who has access to the sect not to come forward and intervene in this matter.”  This is playing politics with lives.

    Earlier last week, some newspapers reported that the parents of the abducted girls had become disillusioned about government’s efforts to free the girls. In fact, some of the parents are said to have died heartbroken, while others have relapsed into all forms of depression as a result of the continuous absence of their loved ones. As they say, he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches. But for how long would these parents remain traumatized? This is why the government should consider the proposal for dialogue as a way of putting an end to the nightmare created by these girls’ kidnap. After all, the US government recently exchanged one prisoner, who was even a deserter, for very senior five al-Qaeda leaders who had been in Guantanamo prison for years. For the exchange to have taken place, they must have been talking.

    What this implies is that there is need for dialogue. It does not appear that the country can free these girls by using force. There is nowhere in the world where that has worked. We have wasted precious time after the abduction before embarking on a rescue mission while the terrorists have fully settled down with the girls in their dungeon.  As things stand now, it will be most appropriate for the government to explore dialogue, whether put together by Obasanjo or any other person, to get the girls out before it is too late. It is really getting late. Like Obasanjo said, right from day one, I have always had this feeling that not all the girls may come back alive. That is the bitter truth. We must move quickly to forestall a high casualty rate among the girls as well as avoid turning them into the forgotten girls of Chibok.

  • Chibok parents plead for girls’ release

    Chibok parents plead for girls’ release

    Concerned indigenes of Chibok, the Borno State town where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted on April 15, pleaded yesterday for their release.

    Mr Tsambido Hosea-Abana, Chairman of Chibok Community in Abuja, pleaded with the security agencies to ensure, without further delay, the girls’ release.

    Hosea-Abana spoke at the commemoration of the Day of the African Child organised by Actionaid Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation.

    According to him, the plea became necessary because other girls were scared of going to school for fear of being abducted in the same manner.

    Hosea-Abana  said: “Chibok is a small community compared to other bigger ethnic groups in Borno, but has the opportunity of being exposed to western education earlier through the missionaries.

    “So, the residents of the town are considered to be highly educated and that is why we do not hesitate to put our girls in Government Secondary School, Chibok.

    Nonetheless, Mrs Comfort Iliya, pleaded with the parents to send their children to school, despite the development.

    She insisted that the girl-child should be empowered through education to build a purposeful society as a mother in future.

    The fact-finding committee investigating the girls’ abduction will submit its report to President Goodluck Jonathan this week.

    The coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC) Mr. Mike Omeri, who broke the news yesterday, urged Nigerians and the international community to be more understanding on the government’s effort to rescue the girls.

    “It could be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee to look into the abdduction of the school girls in Chibok; the committee will make its findings known to the Federal Government this week,” Oweri said.

    Omeri also said former President Olusegun Obasanjo was a free to do anything he wants to do on rescuing the girls.

    “Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is a free person, like every other Nigerian citizen who can come out at any time to offer useful advice on the rescuing of the abducted girls,” he said.

    Obasanjo said he was awaiting Dr. Jonathan’s gree light to embark on talks with people close to the insurgents

    Omeri also said troops had apprehended seven suspected terrorists who infiltrated Maiduguri.

    He said the suspect said that they were being  asked to carry out some bombing and sabotage in furtherance of directives of the leadership of the terrorist group.

    He added that investigations, patrol and surveillance had been stepped up by the troops.

    Speaking on the kidnap of a construction worker in Plateau State, Omeri said that the kidnapped foreigner, who has been released, is a Lebanese as against a report which identified him as a Briton.

    He said the Lebanese was abducted by some armed bandits in Lantang Sunday night but was freed through the efforts of security forces in Angwan Bala in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State.

    Speaking on the failed bombing of the Living Faith Church in Owerri, Imo State, Omeri applauded Nigerians for the effective use of the security alert telephone numbers released to the public some weeks ago, saying the alert system assisted in saving the lives of the worshippers on Sunday.

    “On June 14 2014, at about 22:00 hours, a patriotic Nigerian placed alert call to one of the DSS security numbers which led to the prompt response of the police, army and the DSS in Owerri.

    “ The police bomb squad immediately diffused the improvised  explosive devices to foil the  explosion timed for the commencement of church service

    “The quick response by security forces in foiling the explosion of the IEDs must be attributed to timely intelligence report”.

  • Missing in action?

    Missing in action?

    • In spite of technical assistance from abroad, Boko haram still flexes its ominous muscles

    It is more than two months since about 279 girls were abducted from their school dormitories in Chibok, Borno State. Two months ago, most Nigerians would have sworn that the girls would have been out before now. They have good reasons to be. If the outrage generated by the abductions could pass for unprecedented, far more was the movement which it gave rise to. While the movement, known as #BringBack-OurGirls, which debuted in Abuja, has since caught global imagination in drawing attention to the plight of the unfortunate girls, the force it has generated across global capitals has become impossible to ignore.

    The second reason for the optimism is the generous offer of foreign military assistance in the rescue effort. As at the last count, we have had more than half a dozen offers of help from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel, China, Australia and Pakistan.

    Nigerians welcomed the offers in the hope that it would help to locate and rescue the girls, and with it, the prospects of containing the insurgency. Now, if the initial optimism was borne of the knowledge of what the foreign partners could possibly bring to the table in the war against Boko Haram, the reality, unfortunately, is that there is nothing as yet on ground to suggest that the helpers understand the fierce urgency of the moment.

    For nearly the whole of the past two months, the foreign helpers can be said to be missing in action. Not only has there been no let up in the number and scale of attacks by the terrorists, death tolls from successive attacks have continued to mount, with the most notable being the attack on Gwoza community, Borno State, which left some 200 dead, days after its emir, Alhaji Idrissa Timtab, was killed in a spectacular ambush. This is aside another reported abduction near Chibok, said to involve 20 women.

    We understood from the very beginning that deploying foreign boots on Nigeria’s soil was out of the question. Indeed, our understanding is that the offer of assistance would cover broad technical areas viz: to assist the Nigerian military with vital intelligence obtained from the use of sophisticated technology to ease the fight against the terrorists; to help track movement of their funds; and to shore up capacity of our military in counter-terrorism.

    Two months on, citizens are increasingly wondering whether the offer of help has any real substance beyond the initial (probable) boost to the psychology of the fighting men.  In other words, it is doubtful that their presence has done anything to tilt the military’s advantage in battle. Not only have the terrorists stepped up their attacks, they continue to roam unchallenged, picking their targets with ease.

    We must say that two months ought to be long enough for our military helpers to get down to the business. If their coming was to bring their technological expertise to bear on the war on terror through collaboration with their Nigerian counterparts, two months ought to suffice for the fruits of collaboration to be visible.

    Again, we have heard the suggestion bandied that the Nigerian military cannot be trusted with vital intelligence. While we consider that – and this is to put it mildly – balderdash, our response is that the helpers ought to have evaluated the risks before,not after the offer.

    Without prejudice to the international dimensions of the war, we understand the war to be primarily Nigeria’s to fight. We consider it only fair that those who made promises live up to their responsibility. It is the least they could do to help the military do the job.

  • Bluffing will not bring back our girls

    It is double cause for concern that over 200 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, have remained in captivity since April 15; and more importantly, the Jonathan presidency is yet to address the grave issue with reassuring decisiveness. It is noteworthy that Abubakar Shekau, the militia’s notorious leader, has spelt out conditions for the release of the kidnapped students of the Girls Senior Secondary School, Chibok.  He said : “All I’m saying is, if you want us to release your girls that we kidnapped, you must release our brethren that are held in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu and Lagos states, as well as Abuja. We know that you have incarcerated our brethren all over this country…We will never release them until our brethren are released.”

    Shekau’s words were unambiguous enough, which is why it is puzzling that the Federal Government’s response presents a picture of unhelpful ambiguity. The nearest to an official reaction by the government came through a third party, namely, British Africa Minister Mark Simmonds who gave a clue to President Goodluck Jonathan’s thinking after a meeting in Abuja to discuss an international rescue mission linked with the kidnap, which has attracted worldwide outrage and  condemnation. The BBC quoted Simmonds as saying in respect of Jonathan, “He made it clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners.”

    There has been no contradiction from official quarters, which is not only food for thought but also raises a logical question as to the government’s plan, if any, to get the girls back alive. Perhaps the administration needs to be reminded that it is battling with a murderous group, which has again and again proved to be unpredictable. The inescapable implication is that the government may be running out of time to secure the girls’ freedom, and would need to act expeditiously to prevent the group from possibly having a rethink that might not favour releasing them.

    Understandably, Jonathan is most likely anxious to avoid being perceived as  vulnerable to bullying tactics, particularly against the background that he has often been criticised by the country’s political opposition for alleged weak leadership. However, this is a wrong occasion for him to attempt to change that perception, which may indeed be valid.

    Moreover, given that the concept and practice of prisoner exchange or prisoner swap are not strange, yielding to the idea may not be a bad idea.  Of relevance to the country’s situation is the model of Humanitarian Exchange or Humanitarian Accord popularised by the experience of Colombia in which the government reached an agreement with guerillas to swap prisoners for hostages, an idea that was pushed by the families of the captives.  It is easy to imagine that in the Chibok case the affected families, if not the empathetic public, would readily endorse such arrangement.

    In case Jonathan does not understand, it would be a demonstration of strength to ensure that the girls are brought back alive, no matter the cost. This is not the time for bluffing.

  • APC to Fed Govt: bring back Chibok schoolgirls

    APC to Fed Govt: bring back Chibok schoolgirls

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has again urged the Federal Government under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure the safe rescue of the abducted over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, two month ago.

    The party noted that the continued captivity of the innocent pupils of the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok was the captivity of the rest of the nation.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said the Federal Government should “do everything humanly possible to secure the release of the over 200 schoolgirls …abducted by Boko Haram on April 14”.

    APC added: “It is now over two months since these girls were separated from their families and no one knows under what conditions they are being held. As long as these girls are missing, something is missing in all of us. We, therefore, repeat our appeal to the Federal Government to leave no stone unturned in its efforts to bring back the girls safely

    “We hereby reiterate our support and cooperation for all the efforts that could reunite these girls with their families. We insist that only a non-partisan and concerted effort by all and sundry will help to galvanise a national front against Boko Haram, which is daily killing and maiming our people and stunting the country’s growth.”

    The party thanked Nigerians for their congratulatory messages and words of encouragement, following the its hugely successful inaugural national convention in Abuja on Friday.

    The convention led to the emergence of an elected National Executive Committee (NEC), led by the highly-respected former Edo State Governor John Odigie Oyegun, to guide the affairs of the party.

    APC said: “We are encouraged and gratified by the goodwill messages from a cross section of Nigerians, many of them from outside our party, especially on the openness and transparency of our convention.

    “This massive support from Nigerians has strengthened our resolve to continue with our efforts to move our country forward. Now, we are back to work and we will not look back until Nigeria has been rescued from the grip of a rapacious cabal intent on stifling the country’s progress.”

    The party also thanked its members and supporters for their commitment to sustaining the nation’s democracy and uplifting Nigeria.

    It noted that even when a rainstorm started midway into the convention, the delegates defied the weather to protect the ballot boxes and cast their votes.

    APC said: “When the entire public address system succumbed to the rains, our members moved from one state delegation to another to mobilise them to vote. When the rain started, they were more interested in protecting the ballot boxes than shielding themselves from the rain.

    “It is also noteworthy that no cases of violence and pick-pocketing were recorded, despite the massive turnout at the Eagle Square in Abuja for the convention. Not even the threatening text messages sent to the phones of many delegates at the convention, over a purported impending bomb attack, could shake their resolve. There can be no better testament to commitment to a cause, the cause of rescuing Nigeria, than this.”

    The party assured Nigerians that in the days ahead, it will provide more details of its road map for the creation of a new and prosperous Nigeria for the benefit of all the people.

    It said: “The agenda we have placed in the public domain to showcase our party’s determination to change the face of the country includes job creation; war against corruption; free, relevant quality education; restoration of agriculture; housing, improved healthcare; social welfare plan for the less privileged; greater attention to roads, power and infrastructure; better management of natural resources and strengthening peace, security and foreign policy.

    “But, based on the scientific poll we conducted across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), we have identified three sectors that will command special attention. They are: job creation, war against corruption and security. These sectors will get immediate and special attention from an APC-led Federal Government, starting on May 29, 2015, by the votes of Nigerians and the Grace of God.”

    APC said the achievements of the governors in the 16 states controlled by the party would also be showcased to Nigerians, as part of efforts to make them realise that with its emergence, it will no longer be business as usual.

  • Chibok: Haba Baba!

    What was all that about — former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s prattling about Chibok girls: that most of them might never be found again; the few that might still be found might just be those pregnant but who could not be taken care of in the forest and that, in any case, most of the girls would have been married off to their crazed Boko Haram captors?

    Haba Baba! Is this the voice of a reckless and callow youth or that of a sagacious elder who speaks painful truth with comforting tongue?  Except if Baba would play the callow youth in his grey years, it was a most reprehensible statement.

    Yeah, the child could well be the father of the man, as the famous poet wrote. Still, aside from the innocence of the age, it is one father no adult worth his gumption would showcase. If he does, it would be a case of regression, which however appears as nothing but folly.

    But what might have goaded Baba to such unwise prattles? An impatient push to be noticed by a somewhat sleep-walking Jonathan Presidency to wake up to the realisation that, if Baba, the messiah, did not bring back our girls, no mortal born of woman could? Ha, is there no a limit to the politics of relevance?

    If Baba, with all his busy schedule, his foreign travels and his eternal global demands, could deign to go into Sambisa Forest, when even Champs Elysees in Paris with its Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde would have stopped dead at the whiff of Baba’s coming, why hasn’t Jonathan dived from his presidential throne, rolling at Baba’s feet and professing his grateful approval? Or doesn’t Jonathan and his people want to bring back our girls?  Such ingrates!

    Or, after the famous letter, is the Chibok girls’ kidnap another opportunity for public spat between estranged godfather and godson, with godfather spoiling for war but godson becoming war weary and subdued?

    Or, has Baba gone so delirious about his allegedly near-shunned offer to help, at a juncture of grave national angst, to goad the president into approval, so that the old man would not miss a future bragging right that when everything else had failed for Jonathan on Chibok, it was he Baba, like some rejected stone that became a mighty pillar, who made the difference?

    Whatever is Baba’s motivation, his comments on the Chibok girls were unfortunate.  For one, he seemed culpably insensitive to the feelings of the Chibok girls’ parents. That bit about never seeing some of the girls again, or that many of them could have been pregnant from being sex slaves or the painful possibility or even probability of forced marriages — doesn’t Obasanjo think all these painful possibilities have run through the parents’ troubled minds?

    If Obasanjo wants to help on Chibok, let him do so with minimum fuss. If he wants presidential endorsement, he won’t get it on the pages of newspapers.

    It’s painful telling a man to grow up in old age. But with these insensitive statements, perhaps Baba should be told to grow up and stop throwing tantrums.

  • Chibok girls : US military awaits approval to join search team

    The US military may soon be deplored in the search of the over 200 abducted secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno state.
    A US Congressional Delegation made up of Representatives Steve Stockman, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Frederica Wilson and Lois Frankel, told a news conference in Abuja on Sunday said a directive is being awaited on the issue.
    According to Stockman: ” We get briefed by the military and pending the approval of the government of Nigeria and our government, we plan to take action but I don’t think we are going specifics this time.
    “It was a classified briefing. We stand ready to help and as soon as our government and Nigerian government approves, we will take action.”
    But in the meantime, US is helping Nigeria to train its military.
    Jackson-Lee said, “What I want to say is that I think what it is right now is to work with the Nigerian government in training of the military. I want to emphasise again here that we have come all these miles to say that our Congress stands ready to cooperate and the government in a manner that is appropriate and with the consent of Nigerian government.
    ” And I want to emphasise the need for the Victims Relief Fund because there is so much suffering going on by the young girls and the their families that have been touched by this violence.”
    The delegation also urged Nigeria government to establish a National Victim Fund.
    The fund they argued is necessary for the rehabilitation of all those who have suffered from the Boko Haram horrific violence.
    According to Jackson-Lee “collectively we bring a wide range of special knowledge to Nigeria and to focus on a very important issue. We have come from the United States to focus on bringing the girls back and to focus on stopping the violence of Boko Haram.”

  • We pay parents to keep girls in school, says Katsina Gov

    We pay parents to keep girls in school, says Katsina Gov

    Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State has explained how his government was able to increase the girl child school enrollment figures in recent years.  Shema, who says he is not only deeply concerned about the insurgency in some parts of the North but also touched by the plight of the abducted Chibok girls, wants government to take proactive steps in tackling the development.  In this interview with Adetutu Audu, he revealed how his administration has been using agriculture to drive the economy of the state.

    Many have argued that your state is an investment destination. Can you confidently attest to this?

    Without doubt Katsina State has grown in leaps and bounds since I came in as governor. We are very focused on the need to open our doors wide. There is no serious economy in the world that can hope to grow and prosper at the pace which we hope to grow and prosper without partnering with the private sector. That is why Katsina offers tremendous opportunity in the field of agriculture, soil mineral development, livestock development and other critical areas of infrastructure, education and health.

    Tell us the kind of strides you have made in the agriculture sector which engages about 75% of the population of the state.

    Absolutely, agriculture engages about 75% of our population. Because of the importance of the sector to our economy, you can’t depend on rain-fed agriculture. We are establishing some kind of synergy between rain-fed agriculture and irrigation. Consequently, you can grow crops from the first day of January to December; when it’s chilly winter in Europe, you can come to Katsina and grow practically anything under the sun. We have five major dams. It is yielding result as we have moved from about 1, 000 cultivation per hectare to more than 13, 000 hectares in the last five years. On top of that, we invested hugely in terms of training, extension services, chemicals, seeds and fertilizer. Of course we established the Shongai farming initiative which is a partnership with some farmers in Porto —Novo in Benin Republic. This initiative is aimed at creating young farmers who not only engage in agriculture produce but also in the utilization of the produce to provide employment for teeming youths in Katsina State and to indeed unbundle the chain of the activities in the agricultural sub-sector and livestock development.  Attached to that closely is the issue of how we can drive production and the agro allied section. We also create market opportunity, market potential for farmers so that at the end of each farming season we buy off their produce. We buy the produce at competitive prices so that the farmer would not lose on the investment he has made that year. We now sell the produce to our consumers at subsidized prices. In that pattern you can see that the farmer does not lose and the consumer equally has access to controlled prices. Besides that, Katsina is the largest reserve for cotton in Nigeria. It is called the Cotton Profession Center of Nigeria. The quality of cotton we produce in Katsina provides raw materials for the textile industry and exportation of cotton related materials.  Side by side with that is the way we move in the direction of livestock development. So, in a nutshell, agriculture remains one of the key fundamental areas for job creation in Nigeria, not only  in Katsina State.

     The produce from the farmers are in large quantities. What are you doing in the areas of storage and preservation?

    Preservation is critical in dairy and dairy products because without preservation the entire agricultural process would be in trouble. We have to teach farmers how to preserve their produce and large crop growers and developers how to process and preserve milk. That is what the Shongai initiative is all about. And we are trying to get into partnership with a foreign firm to re-energize what we used to have in Ronki grazing field where we have a diary facility to see how we can make it an effective facility for use by our cattle rearers because the market for diary products in Nigeria is quite large. All our cattle rearers need to do is to be assisted and to be redirected and be guided on how best to manage their cattle and how to engage with other entrepreneurs who have the skill and capacity to grow this critical sector of the economy in our state and our nation.

     One thing I found out is the cost of transportation of the cattle from up North to the South which is a big challenge. Are you doing anything about it?

    Transportation of agriculture produce poses a challenge like any other product in Nigeria because our means of transportation remains the roads and the cost of petroleum products keeps going up. But with the ongoing development of the railway by the Federal Government to move goods in large quantities, in the next couple of years when the railway system is very well established, the cost of transportation of goods will simply come down. But in Katsina State, what we have tried to do is to have infrastructure on a massive scale so that the farmer can have access to road to bring his produce to the market. As I am talking to you, we done over 52 roads and rural feeder roads spanning over 2000km to enable people move their produce from the hinterland to the mainland or to the central market. And we are reaching out to some Chinese companies to see how we can establish a local rail in Katsina State.

    Another issue is beef. How is it preserved?

    We have centres in Katsina since 2007 where we have facilities for meat processing and freezing for meat and dairy products and we have a large grain center. In addition, we have established a committee headed by a former President of Court of Appeal to look into the possibility of bringing back the marketing board in Katsina, like we had in the days of old so that the farmers don’t just produce but are assisted to access to market within Katsina or market within Nigeria or market outside Nigeria.  Nigeria should come together and address this issue of establishing or reenergizing the market structure for farmers and their produce and how we can process and even export.  Nigeria is a beautiful country; our land is cultivatable from the first day of January to the last day of December. There is no excuse Nigeria cannot feed the rest of Africa.

    If I am a young graduate and I don’t want to do any white collar job, I want to go into farming, I will think of land and access to credit facilities. How are you dealing with those two issues to encourage people to go into farming?

    One of the approaches we are adopting in Katsina is, after the development into full scale the Shongai initiative, we are waiting; because it’s a modern trend and it is a current way to go for development and training young entrepreneurs. Our intention is to get land; we have in abundance of land and most of it is land that you can cultivate. All the young boys and girls we are training under Shongai in the three senatorial locations in Katsina, when they come out, will be given pieces of land to settle on the type of production they have learnt and they want to pursue in terms of agriculture activity.

    Speaking about education, i am looking at some figures and wonder how it was done. I see there was this massive enrollment at primary school level of about 1 million in 2005 now close to 1.5 m in 2011. Some other states have the same free education but they don’t have these figures. What did you do to ensure that this came to be?

    Education is number one tool for breaking the cycle of poverty. When I came into office in 2007, I left no one in doubt that my number one priority is education. Without education, no nation can progress; no nation can hope to move to the level of development or success they need to. That is why we unbundled the problems around education and we made sure education is free from primary to secondary and government pays WAEC, NECO, NAPTEC, SSCE fees. And we felt there is a challenged group, young girls in northern Nigeria have little or no opportunity to go to school and, when they do, poverty remains an issue for the parents. So we came up with a strategy, we set up a special department called the Girl-Child Education and Development Department, and I appointed a Special Adviser who is doing a great job. We went out to establish one girl-child school per LGA which of course attracted young girls in the 34 LGAs of the state who are who are doing pretty well. And then we introduced the conditional cash transfer grants. We are working with donor agencies like UNICEF, USAID and others and this conditional cash transfer grants are meant to assist mothers and the kids to stay in school. Stipends are given to the mother every term and the same stipends are given to the girl to stay in school.

    You call it conditional.

    Yes, conditional cash transfer grant.

    Why is it conditional?

    They have to remain in school to receive this stipend from government and donor agencies and of course the apparent increase in the number of children that go to school in Katsina is not only because of free education but also the additional facilities. We built over 200 new secondary schools, we expanded our primary schools, we hired more teachers, we bought more teaching aids and equipment and we introduced bus services in some of the LG headquarters to convey our students at 10 naira per drop,  we improved the salary of our teachers because you know they say you can afford to have a school without a classroom but you can’t afford to have a school without a teacher, we increased the salaries of our workers in tertiary institutions I think twice at the end of my first tenure. You cannot run away from giving quality education to the people. The nation, not only Katsina, needs to put together strategic education development plans for the next 40years in order for us to break our people from the cycle of poverty.

    You said you made education your number one priority and you have done this for over six years now. Regarding the insurgency in the North-east and the girls who have been kidnapped, Boko Haram doesn’t want them to go to school. This completely is against what you have been doing and maybe what others have been doing. What do you think?

    Job creation is a critical tool to break insurgency. My understanding of the insurgency we are experiencing in Nigeria today is that it came from the fact that Nigeria has about five serious challenges that we must face head long: electricity, unemployment, drug addiction, transnational crimes, and indeed the electoral process which brings about perceived injustice. It is a sad story that a beautiful country like Nigeria with tremendous human and material resources and should be the most dynamic business destination in the world is the one suffering insurgency.

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2015: Chibok girls’ delay Jonathan’s declaration

    2015: Chibok girls’ delay Jonathan’s declaration

    •National Convention may hold in August
    •Ministers with political ambition may quit early August

    The abduction of 223 Chibok girls is delaying the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan for second term in office.

    The announcement of the President’s re-election bid was tentatively fixed for May ending in Port Harcourt, Rivers State but the mood of the nation forced the President’s strategists to shift the event.

    But there were indications that the President may make a declaration on or before August when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will hold a National Convention.

    Also, Ministers aspiring to some elective offices in 2015 may be asked to quit either in July or August.

    Investigation by our correspondent revealed that a Declaration Committee, which is headed by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, had considered the end of May for the event but for the abduction of the Chibok girls.

    It was gathered that the quick resolution of the abduction saga will pave the way for Jonathan’s re-election bid.

    It was gathered that in the alternative, Jonathan’s strategists and cabinet members had been using different fora, including television promotions, to drum support for the re-election bid.

    Some of the advertisements are also being used to feel the pulse of Nigerians.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “The abduction of the girls has temporarily altered political calculations in the camp of Jonathan.

    “The President was expected to lay to rest in May all speculations on his second term bid. And Port Harcourt was already chosen for the event to send a message that the President has the full backing of the South-South.

    “But with the abduction of the girls, the declaration is put on hold. It is inauspicious for the President to announce his second term plan now because some will see him as insensitive.

    “So, the declaration is temporarily on hold until the girls are rescued. The President is working round the clock to secure the release of the girls.

    “The government is also careful in managing the rescue operation of the girls to avoid any political backlash for the second term move.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “Well, we hope that on or before August when the PDP will hold a National Convention, the President will make his declaration.

    “We pray that the girls would have been released before the declaration. Their release will add colour to his bid.

    “Nobody expected this challenge but we have to bear it and resolve this for a better Nigeria.” The source, however, said Ministers aspiring for office in 2015 may leave the cabinet on or before August.

    A Presidency source added: “I think these politically ambitious ministers will go on or before August after completing a wind down briefing on the achievements of the administration of the President in the last three years.

    “The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, is expected to organise ministerial briefings between June and July ending. We learnt the budget for the coming score card sessions is being pruned down.”

    Going by INEC’s timetable, parties are expected to hold primaries between October 2 and December 11.