Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo yesterday declared open an intervention programme, the North-East Humanitarian Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (NEHMSE) for the victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the region.
The stakeholders include the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Presidential Initiative for the North-East (PINE), the Victim Support Fund (VSF), and the Save Schools Initiative (SSI).
Osinbajo, while speaking at the meeting in Maiduguri yesterday, said one of the goals of the initiative is to strengthen the capacity of existing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) especially in the North-east region, and to aid the development of others where noticeable and important gaps exist as they must invest in the CSOs community in order to succeed.
“Later in the course of this engagement, perhaps the Presidential Initiative for the North-East (PINE) will unveil its plan to develop the capacity of NGOs in this region and grow new ones where needed.
“This region has suffered tremendously in the past six years. The destruction of infrastructure, farmland, businesses and trades; the destruction of schools, the lost of school-years; rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitation would cost money and time. But neither money or time can fix the trauma of lost of family, relations and friends; the shame and pain of the rape, the scarce and fears or pains of the abducted and kidnapped,” Osinbajo said.
The meeting was attended by governors of Adamawa, Borno, Yobe States; and the deputy governors of Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states as well as the Shehus of Borno and Bama.
