Gov Zulum and Nicholas at Government House Maiduguri
The United Kingdom (UK) has pledged to support Borno in its implementation of the 25-year Development Plan.
Mr Nicholas Dyer, a Special Envoy from the UK’s Foreign Affairs Minister made this known on Monday during a courtesy call on Governor Babagana Zulum at Government House in Maiduguri.
“We are particularly pleased to see that the Governor has launched his 25 year development plan for the state, because having this type of vision in terms of how to move from the situation of where we are now with deep humanitarian challenge and insurgency to a situation where we can support people’s livelihood and long term development is what we all want to see happened.
“I am particularly interested today to see the fact on ground, we hear a lot about North East Nigeria, and I have come today to visit few of the IDPs camp and to have a conversation with His Excellency, the state Governor to see what the facts are on the ground and to see how the UK government can support the state in its vision, and how we can improve development and delivery of assistance we are providing,” Nicholas said.
In his response, Governor Babagana Zulum expressed appreciation to the government of UK for it continuous humanitarian and technical support to the North East.
Zulum said that lack of job opportunities, hunger and illiteracy were some of the root causes of the insurgency which he said requires long and sustainable solution to address.
While appreciating the tremendous humanitarian support from the international partners, Zulum however observed that with the increase agitation by the displaced persons to return to their ancestral land, there is need for the stabilisation and recovery efforts to be carried out simultaneously.
Zulum observed that continous dependance on hand-outs from the international partners is not sustainable, adding that many displaced persons are now returning to safe areas to pick up the pieces of their livelihood once again.
Nicholas entourage include the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Liang and some officials of the High Commission.
