'Boko Haram should be eliminated at the maximum of three months' - Northern govs

Northern governors yesterday said that Federal Government and the international community should end the existence of Boko Haram Islamist group within three months.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, who is also the Chairman of Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF), disclosed this at the end of the NSGF and the Nigeria Embassy Washington DC, USA Investment Forum, held at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja.

'Boko Haram should be eliminated at the maximum of three months. That is the expectation of the northern states from the Federal Government and the international community,' he said.

According to him, all hands ought to be on deck to end the Boko Haram insurgency.

'The current challenges facing our country demonstrates the importance of working together across geo-political zones, political party lines, and ethnic-religious affinities to defeat our common enemies - poverty and corruption, which, unfortunately, continue to undermine our efforts in taking our rightful place as the giant of Africa. We can no longer remain the sleeping giant. And the time for a paradigm shift is certainly now.

'We are under no illusions that achieving this will be easy, especially in a fast changing information age. We also believe that progress in any form comes with a price. Expectedly, as life gets better it certainly gets tougher, with emerging challenges and pressures that sometimes threaten to uproot communities and families from their established ways of life. We, however, believe we have a shared responsibility and morality as Governors of the Northern States to pursue programmes and policies that promote social justice, peace and security, which is the fundamental essence of governance,' he said.

The meeting, which had in attendance the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Ent Whistle, the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Prof. Adewale Ibidapo Adefuye, some governors, deputy governors, key investors from Nigeria and the United States, was aimed at 'creating opportunities for economic prosperity and security in the northern states and the nation in a period of unprecedented insecurity challenges.'