President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday explained that the resettlement of internally
displaced people in Boko Haram active regions will be his top priority.
Buhari, who put the number of the affected persons at over one million, made this declaration
during a meeting he had with representatives of the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation,
and the World Health Organisation in Washington.
In a statement released by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina,
President Buhari is said to have noted that apart from rebuilding the affected region in terms
of infrastructure, priority must also be given to the IDPs.
The presidential spokesman added that during the meeting, the World Bank unfolded a
package which would see it spending up to $2.1billion in rebuilding the badly devastated
area ravaged for the past six years by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The statement read in part, “The President urged the World Bank to send a team, which
would work in concert with a team from the Federal Government, so that a proper assessment
of needs could be done.
“The World Bank will spend the $2.1billion through its IDA (International Development Agency),
which gives low interest rates loans to government.
“The first 10 years will be interest-free, while an additional 30 years will be at lower than capital
market rate.
“The World Bank is eager to move in quickly, give out the loans, and give succour to the people
of North-East, long at the mercy of an insurgency that has claimed over 20,000 souls.”
Adesina added that the WHO is also to invest $300million on immunisation against malaria in
Nigeria, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will collaborate with Dangote Foundation
to ensure that the country maintains its zero polio case record of the past one year.
If the effort is sustained for another two years, the presidential spokesman said Nigeria would
be declared fully free of polio.
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