Borno State governor Babagana Umara Zulum has donated 320-million naira and a variety of foodstuff to more than 100,000 households which had been displaced by Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS) insurgents.
The residents and internally displaced persons, living mostly in camps and host communities, had been denied access to farms and businesses and all other means of making money to survive.
Zulum oversaw the distribution of the donation, which took place on Monday in Monguno in Borno State.
Mallam Bulama, a resident, said the money and food would go some way to alleviating the suffering of those experiencing extreme hunger and poverty.
Various food grains – mostly maize − sugar and shawls for women were distributed to 65,000 male heads of households and 35,000 female heads of households, said Bunu Bukar, another resident.
Bulama said the head of each household received three bags of rice, maize grain and beans.
In addition, each displaced female recipient living in government-controlled camps in Kukawa, Marte, Nganzai and Guzamala was given a shawl and 5,000 naira.
The governor also approved a site for a polytechnic facility − an institution of higher education offering courses at degree level or below, especially in vocational subjects − to be built in Monguno.
Zulum apparently held a meeting with Nigeria’s education minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in January to discuss the possibility of a polytechnic being built in Monguno.
Adamu assured Zulum that land would be provided for the tertiary institution and Borno State would be given any support required.
- Monguno is the most populated part of northern Borno. It falls within Nigeria’s portion of the Lake Chad Basin. It is an area that has faced some of the most severe attacks by insurgents, mostly the JAS − also known as Boko Haram − in recent years.
