Insurgency: Gov. Abubakar of Bauchi State charges FG to address poverty, illiteracy

From: Ruth David, Bauchi

Bauchi State Government has appealed to the Federal Government to pay priority attention to addressing the underlying factors that prepared the grounds for breeding insurgent groups in the region.

The state Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar made the call while receiving members of the Economic Development Subcommittee who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House in Bauchi, expressed the fear that if poverty and illiteracy were not addressed, the northeast stands the risk of a crazy person rising up to recruit an army of insurgents in the future.

According to him,“your job is to reconstruct the Northeast. You need to start with physical infrastructure, but it is also important to resettle the internally displaced persons and address the underlying factors that brought about the insurgency in the first place”.

He then observed that previous attempts to reconstruct the Northeast region have failed, but noted with satisfaction that current efforts have started yielding fruitful results under President Muhammadu Buhari.

While supporting the prioritization of the “frontline states” ravaged by the insurgency in the reconstruction initiative, the governor further called for greater attention to states which he termed “peripheral states” like Bauchi that provide sanctuary to those fleeing the insurgency.

The Governor lamented that with the influx of internally displaced persons to Bauchi State, critical infrastructures like hospitals and schools and lean resources in government coffers are being heavily overstretched.

Before the insurgency, he said Bauchi metropolis required about 12.5 million liters of water daily, but with the influx of IDPs fleeing crises in neighboring states of Plateau, Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, the State capital now requires 25 million liters of water every day, which overstretches the State’s coffers.

Governor Abubakar then referred the Committee to the report of the Northeast Economic Summit which contains comprehensive analysis of the economic state of the sub-region and recommendations on how to turn around its fortunes saying that economic activities of the region require revitalization for all the IDPs to be easily reintegrated into their respective communities.

In his speech , Chairman of the Economic Development Sub-Committee of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative, Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakubu said the Committee was mandated to coordinate all interventions coming to the Northeast for humanitarian services.

He stated that the Committee was in the State to investigate the problems being faced by the IDPS and the region, especially in agricultural, health and education sectors, as well as international trade through direct engagements with stakeholder.