Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on the international community to help tackle the humanitarian crisis in the North East, ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency
“We call on the international community for help. Yes, the Boko Haram terrorists are on the run, but their menace has not been completely solved,” he said at the donation of 35,930 kilogrammes of seeds by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), to Borno State Government, in Maiduguri, yesterday.
Obasanjo, an IITA ambassador, said the international community has great role to play in ensuring food security in the region.
He commended Governor Kashim Shettima for his numerous achievements in agriculture, in spite of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“When I came to the Farm Centre, I saw this line of tractors, 1,000 of them; I also saw combined harvesters, complete with their implements. What struck my mind was the need to tell the world that our problem in the North-East is not because people are not willing or ready to work in agriculture. It has to do with the insecurity associated with the Boko Haram insurgency,” he said.
In his address, Shettima thanked the former president for the visit and for identifying with Borno people.
He said most of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have started returning to their liberated communities.
Shettima noted that provision of new improved varieties of maize, rice, millet, soyabean, sorghum, cowpea, will go a long way in complementing efforts of the state government in its agricultural revolutionary drive, to address unemployment and hunger. He also promised continued partnership of his government and IITA.
Meanwhile, National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Abdulkadir Abdulsalami has said 219 Chibok girls were not kidnapped by Boko Haram but were used to dent the image of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Abdulsalami also said the wrath of God will be visited on the All Progressives Congress (APC) for manipulating Nigerians about their abduction.
In a statement, yesterday, Abdulsalami said the All Progressives Congress (APC) should expect the wrath of God for deceiving Nigerians and manipulating the parents of the Chibok girls. The national chairman said the government should not claim credit “for what they have packaged, pre-arranged and now executing”.
He said the government has worsened the suffering of Nigerians and if President Muhammadu Buhari does not leave office, nothing good should be expected from his administration.