Boko Haram has burnt 900 schools, killed 176 teachers in Borno, says governor

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on Thursday said up to 900 schools have been destroyed and 176 teachers killed from 2011 till date by Boko Haram insurgents in his state. Borno State is the hardest hit by the activities of Boko Haram.

Shettima disclosed this in Abuja at the inaugural meeting of the Steering Committee of the Safe Schools Initiative which was inaugurated last week by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The steering committee’s inaugural meeting was attended by co-chair of the Safe Schools Initiative, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy; Governor Kashim Shettima; secretary to the state government of Adamawa State, A. L Tukur; Aliko Dangote; Nduka Obaigbena, chairman of ThisDay; Sani Sidi, DG NEMA; representative of the National Security Adviser, Soji; and representative of the National Council of Women’s Societies, Edna Azura.

At the inaugural meeting, the committee was briefed by representatives of the emergency states on the current state of education following the insurgency and all members restated their commitment to take all necessary actions to restore safety to schools.

The Safe Schools Initiative is considering a short, medium and long term strategy for making schools safer, especially in the North-East.

Several options were discussed by the committee for immediate implementation include visual, temporary and mobile schools; school at home, in a box, container and tents as well as longer term strategies for rebuilding schools.

The committee underthe need to work with parents, the community and other stakeholders in designing sustainable safe schools solution.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance, said at the meeting that the Victim Support Fund recently announced by President Jonathan would complement Safe School Initiative Programme to ensure safety of schools in the country.

She said that both the business community in Nigeria and Federal Government had paid up the $10 million each they pledged to support the programme.

“There are other components for a comprehensive approach to the programme and the president has also made some other efforts, the first one was that yesterday (Wednesday) the Victim Support Fund was launched.

“That is going to complement the safe schools initiative because, the parents, victims and other people who have suffered will now have a place to go in terms of support for them.
“At the same time, there is also the presidential initiative on the North East which will ensure that the emergency relief and other emergency support to people who are affected are also implemented,’’ she said.
She added that a component of reconstruction of damaged infrastructure under the presidential initiative on the North East would also work with the safe school.
According to her, the whole package is planned to complement each other to ensure that success is achieved.

The minister said that all of the initiatives were being carried out with the consent of the states involved and that in implementing the initiative, the states, local governments, communities, international partners and the Federal Government would work together.