Conflicts: 10 Northern Govs in America, as
Shettima Demands Practical Benefits
As 10 northern governors today began a
three-day symposium organised by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
which is an agency established and funded by the US Government, Governor of
Borno State and Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Kashim
Shettima, has demanded practical benefits of the symposium that will make
impacts on the vast majority of citizens across the 19 northern states.
Shettima's spokesman, Isa Gusau, said in a
statement emailed from Washington that the symposium is a follow up on an
earlier one hosted in March 2014 during the President Goodluck Jonathan
administration when the US invited northern governors for a security symposium
which dwelt on finding solutions to the Boko Haram insurgency and it's spread
from the Northeast to other parts of northern Nigeria.
Delivering his address on behalf of the Northern
Governors' Forum, Shettima said traveling to Washington at a time of economic
recession was likely to attract condemnation for the governors but they defied
the anticipated criticisms with expectation of benefits for their citizens.
"We believe that our hosts, USIP and officials
of the US government will work with us with the utmost sincerity of purpose to
guarantee quick benefits that will improve the living conditions of our people.
As governors of the 19 northern states, we hope to secure tangible benefits
that we can point to our people as proof, that our visit here is not a jamboree
as they would assume. By the time we
wake up tomorrow, print, online and broadcast media houses in Nigeria would have
screaming headlines, that ‘Twelve northern governors storm Washington’ amid
economic recession, when our national currency, the naira, has sharply depreciated
against the U.S dollar. Majority of our citizens will quickly conclude that we
are here on a jamboree. Well, leadership isn't only about popular decisions;
leadership is about doing what is right at a right time.
“Our visit to Washington is an opportunity to
re-engage with our American partners on the most vital issues that can help us
to quickly make transition from volatility to a phase of peace and development
in the northern states of Nigeria. Over the past few years, we have realised that
the indices of development in our region have not only been some of the most
damning in our country, they have also been the background against which the
problems in our region have manifested.
“These range from the deepening problems of Boko
Haram, rural banditry, spontaneous religious and inter-tribal violence, deadly
clashes between pastoralists and farmers, cattle rustling as well as the mother
of them all which is pervasive poverty that gives birth to the many forms of crime. The emergence or of insurgencies is not
episodic events. They manifest through lingering processes which eventually
symptomatised into Boko Haram and ISIS. We have the greatest respect and
admiration for the American government and we hold the United States Institute
of Peace in very high esteem due to its track record. It is for these reasons
that even though we anticipate criticism at home for this visit, we came here
with high expectations."
US Deputy Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who
delivered a keynote address at the opening ceremony, said the US government was
keenly interested in working with the northern governors to address conflicts
and factors responsible for pervasive poverty in northern Nigeria.
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