Bornos future is bleak

"What Borno is faced with is frieghtening because the bh has made sure that local governments in borno are not working and unless farmers can plant seeds in this farming season we dont know what shall become of us".Amb Usman GajiGaltimari has told the visiting Northern Elders who were in Maiduguri on Tuesday.

"In all the crisis that has been facing Borno right from 2009 only Borno state government has borne the expenses. We thank Kano and Adamawa which came to assist us morally and financially of which we shall continue to be grateful", he said.

Amb. Usman Gaji Galtimari was responding to Professor Ango Abdullahi who led a delegation of Northern elders to commensurate with the people over the hardship which they have been subjected to as a result of the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.

He said it was unfortunate that the Boko Haram crisis was regarded as an Borno affair but the stark reality has dawned on all now that the crisis is a northern issue.

Commenting all the call by the Northern Elders that the philosophy of one North should be reawakened, Amb. Gaji Galtimari said ,"it is difficult if not impossible to reawaken the north from the past.

"I wish to point out that it is not possible for us to reawaken the philosophy of one north because we have to consider several factors among which are political setup, distrust and the interest of the greater Nigeria.

"All the states have developed at their own pace , each with its own priorities, hence it is not feasible to talk of one north anymore. Ee can only talk of assisting each other to meetup with our various aspirations", he said.

Earlier Prof. Ango Abdullahi had told the Borno Elders that the delegation was in Borno to commensurate with the people of the st.ate over the hardship they were being subjected to due to the activities of boko haram insurgents and to look for ways which the North can bring back power to the region.

At a courtesy call on Governor Kashim Shettima, Prof. Ango Abdullahi had told the governor that the Northern Elders have engaged the survices of legal

Personnel to look into the issue of Baga massacre because they will take the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.

"The time has come for us to take back power to the North where it belongs. We willingly allowed power to elude us under an arrangement we thought was for the good of all the countty but what have we got in return?, he asked.

"You governors have to support in this regard because you are the politicians eho have to forgo your personal interests and work to bring back power to where it belongs. We at the NEF have no candidate or political party but we have to eork together and when we choose a party or a leader then the whole North must ho for him if we are to achieve our objective" he said.

"God has given us the numbers and we have to use it to bring back power to the North. Two thirds of Nigeria is the north and we cant afford to loose again after willinglly let it go in 2011."

In his response governor Kashim Shettima said it eas a welcome idea that the elders are the ones championing the cause for power to be brought back to the north.

"Very soon the price of oil in the international market will no more be competetive because America will be self sufficient while more African countries eill become oil producers, it will be in our interes therefore to start developing agriculture since we have abundant land resources"he said.

Governor Shettima said his doors are open and he is everready to eork with the Northern Elders to better the region.

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Articles by Ibrahim-Gwamna Mshelizza