Yobe has attained MDGs despite insurgency, says governor’s aide

Director of Press Affairs to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, yesterday disclosed that despite Boko Haram insurgency and five-year security challenges, the state government has met some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in health, education, housing and road sectors to raise the living standard of people in both rural and urban centres.

Bego, who stated this yesterday during an enlarged brief interactive session with newsmen in Damaturu at the Government House, said the state government’s performances on MDGs indices in the health, education, housing and road infrastructural development sectors are high in addressing the state’s poverty and unemployment problems among the teeming graduates from Yobe State.

Citing the housing sector, he said Yobe is the only state in the country where government workers are allocated government quarters or houses at 65 per cent subsidy. “There is nothing worth for a worker to own a house after retiring without paying any rent,” said Bego.

His words: “We have built so many kilometres of roads network, including the over 200-kilometre Trans-Saharan road in the state. We have made progress in the area of water supply with the support of our development partners such as the African Development Bank and the Japanese Government.

So, while we do not hand off road construction or the drilling of more boreholes, for instance, the focus will be more on education and healthcare.

General hospitals across the state will come on stream for major rehabilitation works, beginning with the General Hospital in Potiskum and extending to the hospitals in Gashu’a, Nguru and so much for the rundown of some of the major interventions of Gaidam administration in raising the living conditions of the people across state.”

Bego, who said the state government has also done a lot to support people that are directly affected by Boko Haram attacks, further said: “According to records from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), we have a total of 135,511 Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) scattered in 13 local councils living in host communities. “The state government has an established IDPs camp with 3,011 persons. Of this number, 482 are men, 670 women and we have 1,859 children.

According to SEMA, there are two other camps set up by the IDPs themselves in Kasaisa and Kukareta with a population of over 2,750. “Over the past two years, SEMA has been supporting these IDPs with additional support from NEMA and other development partners.

The most recent support provided people affected by Boko Haram insurgency was the sum of N61.8 million given by the state government to some traders whose businesses were destroyed by the insurgents.”