From Okwe obi, Abuja
Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, yesterday, said addressing poverty and building infrastructure would reduce banditry and other forms of security challenges in the North East.
He stated this at a consultative meeting with ministries, departments, agencies and security agencies on the North-East Stabilisation and Development Master-Plan (NESDMP) Project in Abuja.
He vowed to implement the 10-year North East Stabilisation Master Plan in rebuilding the region, adding that it would not be politicised or become another academic exercise.
“In order to address the increasing issue of poverty, infrastructural deficit and that of climate vulnerability, we need to have a very strong master plan that will be sustainable. And it is a document that can be updated with time. It should be an all inclusive from pragmatic approach to solving the problems in the North East.
“The most important phenomena in reducing the insurgency in the North East is for somebody to become resilient. If you are resilient you can contain. And most importantly, you also need to provide infrastructure in addressing the root cause of insurgency which is not limited to endemic poverty,” he said.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said the North East master plan would contain programmes and schemes that promote and facilitate the physical and socio economic development of the North East and the estimate of the time and costs for implementing such programmes and schemes.