How Borno Govt Co-funds ‎Fight Against Boko Haram, By SSG

Whereas it has received only N200m contribution from the Federal Government since 2011, the Borno State Government has invested over ten billion naira in procurement of armoured personnel carriers, patrol vehicles, hundreds of trailers of petroleum products, provision of material logistics and intervention on area of accommodation to support security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency, Secretary to Borno Government, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda said in an interactive session with journalists before he left Lagos at the weekend.
Jidda said the State had earlier decided not to make public it’s expenditures on the fight against Boko Haram because Governor Kashim Shettima always restrained officials in order to be viewed as embarrassing the Federal Government since funding security falls under the exclusive legislative lists which makes it a constitutional obligation of the FG.
Jidda said the Governor reversed his position given series oof allegations leveled against the State by mischief makers, part of which is a claim that the State was not supporting the military.
“First of all let me say we were pushed into making public, these things I am about to say. For three years we dealt with these challenges without any noise since the Government was doing it for Borno people. Some people are being made to assume that a certain security vote is provided to State Governments, this is not true. No State gets a dime from FAAC as security vote. Every State makes its own budget it intends to spend from its own normal allocations, for security not that external funds froom the Federal Government acrues to any State. For us in Borno, we have spent over ten billion naira in the last three years to support security agencies in the counter-insurgency. This doesn’t include our losses. We have lost thousands of citizens and in terms of material loss, we might be talking in tens of billions and in all of these Borno has received only N200m from the Federal Government as support even we have been co-funding the security that is exclusive preserve of the Federal Government.
These over ten billion naira has been spent in acquiring and donating over 20 brand new ultra modern Armoured Personnel Carriers to the Nigeria Police Force, the Government has acquired and donated about 400 brand new Toyota Hilux Patrol Vehicles each costing between 6 to 7m, we have a filling Station that is dedicated to regular fueling of these vehicles, hundreds of trailers of fuel have obviously been consumed and still being consumed, we maintain these vehicles, provide material logistics to troops, we even pay for intelligence through the military by releasing funds where they request, we have intervened in building hostels in one of the barracks along Maiduguri-Damaturu road and provided beddings to ease accommodation problems; we provide funds to families of soldiers killed in combat as immediate palliative, there were instances we gave one million naira to families of every soldier at a presentation in Maiduguri.
The only support we have not provided to the military is the acquisition of ammunition and that is because the laws prevent us from doing so. We do so much in mobiling citizens to support the military. The State Government trained, kitted and employed thousands of youth volunteers called civilian JTF who offer tremendous support to the military in terms of both intelligence gathering and even combats in front lines. We have provided these youths with patrol vehicles, pay them stipends, encourage them in other forms and they work hand in hand with the military. When there was attack on Giwa military Barack in Maiduguri sometime in March, 2014, these inspired, trained and kitted youths came out in hundreds and rushed to Giwa barracks to support soldiers, this was even when gun battles raged at the barracks, this tells you the kind of community involvement in this fight and what Borno Government does. We have lost dozens of traditional rulers as district and village heads, all of whom were killed because of their roles as key sources of local intelligence, these people see and report what happens and that is why the Boko Haram made them targets since 2010 after the first major crisis of 2009. We have a robust system of information gathering that is provided for processing by security agencies to get intelligence.
All the good people of Borno are involved in this. The government is also accessible to security agencies. As a rule, no security chief in the State spends 10 minutes before having access to Governor Kashim Shettima no matter the time of the day. They either come or call him directly at any time they want and they are regularly attended to. Then director of operations at the defence headquarters, Major General Lawrence openly talked about the extraordinary support we provide to the military when he visited Borno in 2013, the then chief of army staff also never failed to say it, the same with the GOC’s we have had so we don’t know where mischief makers got what they are telling the media that Borno State Government has not been supporting the military. We spend so much supporting on intelligence gathering to prevent attacks and where they occur we spend so much supporting victims and families of bereaved persons, we spend on reconstruction of destroyed communities and public establishments. Thousands of private houses were destroyed over the years and many were rebuilt by Government. As at last year, over 800 blocks of classrooms, some containing three to five classrooms in a single block were destroyed, we have spent nearly two billion on attacked hospitals and on markets, school infrastructures you name them but despite all of these we are building over 2500 houses and apartments as we speak, in different estates, we are investing heavily on agriculture to create jobs and make Boko Haram very unattractive to any person that might have been driven by economic factors and those that could be driven in future. We are applying combat, political and economic approaches to fighting the insurgency. Our people are highly mobilized and they are doing their best giving information, many get killed in the process but they have remained resolute and consistent. It is therefore so unfair if despite all that the Government is incurring and all that it’s people have lost in terms of human lives and property, we are still made to look like the accused instead of the traumatized victims that we are as a Government and people” the SSG said.
Jidda said the Borno Governor is a very humble man who is committed to good governance and is always ready to cooperate with the Federal Government which was why he was quietly co-funding the military without making noise until he was pushed to the wall.
The SSG called on the media not to be misled by those who may want to confuse things for material benefits noting that at every point in time, there are those who benefit from any crisis or disagreement at the expense of the larger society. He thanked the media for what he described as “rooted support” and urge journalists to always stand by facts and figures which they should independently verify at all times.