Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, in an
interactive session with journalists spoke on
diverse issues including the Boko Haram
insurgency, abduction of Chibok schoolgirls
and his future plans. KAYODE IDOWU was
there
The last four years of your administration
have been quite eventful especially in the area
of security. How have you been coping?
Honestly how I am coping is a secondary
issue; what is more important is how the over
six million people of Borno State are coping.
These are people, who even in the best of
time were poor and now further pauperised by
the Boko Haram insurgency. Parents were
killed, their sons and daughters slaughtered
by some demented monsters who were trying
to impose their alien ideologies on the
beleaguered people of Borno, now turned to
beggars; rendered homeless; orphaned, and
widowed. My heart goes out to them. I do not
care about my feelings, security or comfort; I
am more concerned about the welfare of the
victims directly affected and how we can get
them back on their feet. We have 1,000 years
of recorded history – I believe that there is a
silver lining in the horizon. I believe that we
shall very soon get out of our problems
especially with the successes recorded in the
on-going counter insurgency operations. Yes,
we have won the first phase of the war; but
the battle is still on. The insurgents have
melted into the hinterland. Two days ago,
they killed 25 people in Kwajaffa. They have
refocused their energy now towards the
periphery of Sambisa, from there they have
been launching attacks on the Askira Uba
Local Government Area. They killed quite a
number of people in Chul village; they have
attacked several other communities along the
corridors. But by the grace of God we shall
get out of it.
What other efforts are being made to get your
state and the North-East geo-political zone
out of the clutches of insurgents?
We have always made support for security
agencies our number one priority. We have
inspired our sons to support the military. We
trained, equipped and employed them and
they are working. We have created a strong
political will. We coordinate community
involvement in fighting insurgency and we
provide modest leadership. This was why
when there were strong fears that Maiduguri
was to be attacked in December last year, I
flew into Maiduguri from the United Kingdom
where I went officially in order to be with the
people of Borno State who had nowhere to
run to and this was against security advice. I
was ready to go through whatever it was with
them whether to die or survive. I had mentally
bid farewell to my children when I decided to
come into Maiduguri that day because the
fears were so intense that Boko Haram
insurgents were coming in through Konduga.
I didn’t want to be remembered as a governor
that abandoned his people to their fate. I do
not want to be remembered as a governor
that stayed in the UK while Maiduguri was
taken by insurgents and people killed. It is
better to die for something than to live for
stupidity. Luckily, the military and the youth
volunteers worked very hard, we gave them
all the support, citizens prayed ceaselessly
and with Allah’s help, the insurgents were
repelled from entering Maiduguri which is the
most populated place here. I am proud to be
part of the success story and of being
responsible for coordinating counter
insurgency operations. But the most
important thing now is that hope springs
from our hearts. I am by nature an eternal
optimist. My candid belief is that tough times
do not last forever but tough people do. I
believe that we have a people that have the
resilience and the indomitable will to chart a
peaceful course for our people. But I want to
assure you that the government and the
people of Borno will continue to partner with
the security agencies in bringing everlasting
peace to this part of the world. I cannot but
commend security agencies, the army in
particular for their unflinching commitment
towards restoring peace in our fatherland.
The Chinese have a word for danger, the word
for crisis that means danger and opportunity.
This means that despite the challenges we
face it also provides us with an opportunity
for social reengineering; to reposition our
state to meet the challenges of the future.
It will soon be a year that over 200
schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok. Are
there other efforts being made other than
what we have heard in the past towards
rescuing them?
The Chibok girls’ issue is really very sad; no
responsible parent would be happy with what
happened to those poor girls. I am a father of
two little girls. Any time I look into the eyes
of any of my daughters, I fight to hold back
tears because I remember that girls like them,
born and so dearly loved by parents, are
missing and worst of all, in the hands of
people that love to kill. It is one issue that
has caused so much heartache not only for
the parents of the girls, or the people of
Borno, but the people of Nigeria as a whole.
It is so sad. Last year, when I read an
account of one of the parents of the missing
girls, I couldn’t sleep all night long because
he said he would prefer to pick up the corpse
of his daughter and bury her rather than have
her in the hands of some misguided vandals
who do not have limits to what they can do.
Imagine a father preferring to see his
daughter’s corpse? Look at how the leader of
the insurgents said he wanted to sell the girls
into slavery, that some were married off etc.
It is disturbing because their capabilities for
committing heinous crimes are beyond
human comprehension. But like I said earlier,
hope springs eternally from the heart of men.
Only an insane parent will give up on a
missing child. We believe quite passionately
and realistically that these poor girls will be
found. We have been working hard with some
international agencies towards their
rehabilitation, trauma management and how
they can be made to pick up the pieces of
their lives once we get them. We believe that
at the risk of compromising their safety, the
hopeful assessment of most security
agencies, is that probably they may be in the
Sambissa forest which is very large. Hitherto
we heard they were being held around the
Gwoza and Damboa axis. But for now
Damboa, especially the township has been
recovered and is relatively safe. Gwoza too
has been recaptured. Thus, our hopeful
assessment is that probably the girls are in
the Sambisa forest and we hope that they
would be found in good shape – the most
important thing is to get them alive; and
alive we shall get them.
How right is the assertion that the initial
attitude of the government to the news of the
girls’ kidnap may have been responsible for
their long stay in captivity?
This is correct. Vital hours were lost soon
after the attack. Hours that might have paid
off if the search for the girls was vigorously
done within that time frame. For about two or
three days they were at the bank of a river
and some of the commanders were said to
have gone into the hinterlands of Sambisa to
get directives from their masters. That could
have been a golden opportunity for us to
recover the girls. But scepticism and sheer
indifference really compounded our problems.
Some were even compounding theories that it
was the Borno State government that
abducted the girls and kept them in the
Government House. I found it quite amusing;
why should we abduct our daughters for
whatever political gains and keep them in the
Government House? But there is no need to
cry over spilt milk. It took some time for the
Federal Government to invite us over the
issue. Even when I was invited, I was really
delighted that at last some solutions would
be proffered as to how to rescue these girls.
But it was amazing that the whole crux of the
meeting was geared towards scapegoating.
The Commissioner of Education, the principal
of the school and others were being
railroaded to make phantom confessions
which were alien to our knowledge. But what
is important is what we can do to bring back
these girls. We have succeeded in
rehabilitating the 56 that escaped; the state
government has committed N100 million for
their education in some of the best schools in
the country so that they can realise their full
potential. These girls, like many of us here,
are from the humblest of background; some
are the first generation girls to be educated in
their families. Therefore, we will do whatever
it takes to see that they are rescued; and
once they are recovered we will spend
whatever resources to ensure that they are
rehabilitated.
The Boko Haram insurgency has virtually
brought the education sector to its kneel.
Now that peace is returning, how do you
intend to getting this sector back on its feet?
Yes, it is absolutely true we have challenges;
but we have a robust framework. Once peace
is established, we are going to pick up the
pieces of our lives and restore education to
its enviable status. It pains me so much
because most of us are from the humblest of
backgrounds; and it is because most of us
have access to public schools that is why we
are who we are. Posterity will judge us
harshly if we allow the public schools to
collapse. With all sense of modesty, what we
spent on education in the last three and half
years were not spent in the last three
governments that came before ours. We have
renovated public schools more than the ones
renovated by the governments of Mala
Kachalla and Ali Sheriff fused together. We
have sent our teachers to India to learn the
modern Kayan technology and using
projectors to teach in secondary schools. We
have increased funds in feeding of our
students from N20 million to N100 million
every month. Today, students get very
nutritious meals. We have set up a quality
assurance team to monitor standards in our
public schools. We have invested about $3
million on the Kayan technology alone – all
geared towards addressing the issue of
education. But I want to assure you that with
the re-emerging peace we are going to
address our problems soon. ?
How far has the Federal Government Safe-
School-Initiative gone in your state?
I am sorry to say that the project like most
projects of the Federal Government here in
Borno is more of hype than action. We have
been attending several meetings to that effect
but till now there is nothing on ground to
show for it. We believe on our part that
things are in the pipeline and will start
yielding dividends very soon.

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