FG says it needs N233bn to rehabilitate Boko Haram ravaged states
“This region has suffered tremendously in the past six years. It has suffered from the destruction of infrastructure, farmlands, businesses, trades, the destruction of schools and the loss of school years.
“Rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitation will cost money and time. But neither money nor time can fix the trauma of loss of family members, relations and friends, the shame of the raped, the scars and fears of parents of the abducted and the kidnapped, the bewilderment that comes with loss of homes, possessions and livelihoods and the pains of hundreds of thousands of orphaned children.”
“The tasks before us are many and profound, to fix brick and mortar and to mend hearts and minds damaged by senseless murderous violence. But we are called not just to mend the hearts and minds of the victims but also of their traducers, and killers.
“The young men and women who have been brainwashed to kill, maim and destroy in the warped belief that by so doing they please God, they are also victims. Indeed, these perpetrators are themselves victims, trapped in the vortex of evil manipulation, compelled to dehumanise themselves as they shed the blood of the innocent.
“It is our duty to deconstruct the narrative that causes men to kill children on their beds at a boarding school at night even as we degrade the military capacity of the insurgents. The tasks are indeed many and profound.
“But while there is still so much to do, much has been done already. The many civil society groups, funding partners, regional and international partners who have given of their time, resources and even their lives in some cases, deserve to be commended. But for you, first responders, we would have been far worse off than we are today.”