Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum has alleged that foreigners including “white men, Asians, Africans, Muslims and Christians” are fighting for Boko Haram in the North East
Zulum, made the claim in his speech at the 17th Gani Fawehinmi annual lecture in Lagos, also urged the country to consider the terrorism in the North East as a pan-Nigerian problem which the whole country should unite to solve.
His words: “I’m from Borno state, and many of our children are into Boko Haram. I’m not denying the fact. But again, they are being sponsored by many people across the world. Among Boko Haram, we have white men, Asians, Africans, Muslims and Christians,” he said.
“Throughout northern Nigeria, particularly Borno state, a committee is working on how to reform the Almajiri system of education. We want to streamline the non-formal and formal education sectors to avail those children basic literacy and numeracy skills so they can stand on their own. And we are not in support of street begging.
“We must stop seeing this insurgency as a problem of the north. The distance between Borno state and Lagos state is about 1,700km, but mind you if Borno state is not peaceful, other parts of the nation will never be peaceful. We have to unite and fight these insurgents. We have seen what happened in Libya, Iraq and other countries. Peace building and social cohesion are very important in strengthening the resilience of our communities. “Unless we get rid of nepotism, tribalism and exploitation of religion, we will not get it right in this country. The constitution is very clear on the need for peaceful coexistence among all of us, which is why the principle of federal character is enshrined in the constitution, but it has been abused.”
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