APC FAN CLUB - Worldwide Very interesting and brilliant! REMARK BY THE GOVERNOR OF BORNO STATE, KASHIM SHETTIMA ON A SOLIDARITY VISIT BY NIGER DELTA PEOPLES FORUM, BORNO STATE CHAPTER; MULTI-PURPOSE HALL ANNEX, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, MAIDUGURI; FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014 I am happy to welcome all of you, my colourful brothers and sisters, to the Government House but let me first correct the name of your association and I apologise for doing that. I heard you saying you are Niger Delta Peoples Forum in Borno State. I do not accept that. To me and to all of us in this Government, you are the People of Borno State with roots from the Niger Delta, in other words, I will prefer to call you Forum of Borno People from the Niger Delta. Some of you were born here in Borno State; some of you probably had parents or grandparents born in Borno. Most of you have something doing in whatever respect whether as business men, traders or whatever it is you are doing and by that, you are contributing to the economy of Borno State. The allocations given to Borno from the Federation Account is given based on our population amongst other indices being considered and all of you here, regardless of where you consider your roots, make up the population of Borno State and this means, you are stakeholders in what we get from the Federation Account, you are fully entitled to all public services and privileges what we provide as a Government. When Boko Haram members in their evil ways, planted explosives around the post office in January, this year, the explosives did not choose victims based on their backgrounds and what part of the country they came from, the explosives simply targeted residents of Maiduguri who happened to be on the spot. This is the same of other wicked attacks in any part of Borno State. So, to me and indeed to every reasonable person here, you are part and parcel of Borno State, you are sons and daughters of this State with roots from the Niger Delta. My ancestral background is Nganzai local government area in Northern Borno but I have adopted Maiduguri Metropolitan Council as my official place of origin. We are all one people in this country. Believe me I have never regarded Honourable Christopher Godwin Akaba as different from anyone that works with me on the basis on ethno-religious background and this why immediately he was appointed as Special Assistant, I brought him directly under my office; I have seen his potentials, his sincerity, zeal and commitment to progressive governance and this is what matters to me as a Governor. Like you said we have another Borno man from the Igbo clan as a Special Adviser. Chief Kesta is someone that has access to my residence; he has been part of my family for years when we were in the Zenith Bank, he doesn’t need my presence before he can go to my house. My spokesman who is Special Adviser on Communications is another Borno man with Zamfara origin. My Special Assistant on Media is also a Borno man with origin from Gombe State. I have a dream for Borno in which people of any background can aspire to greater heights based on their individual character and competences. One of the secret on accelerated societal success is readiness to accommodate new members. The United States of America is one of the greatest countries in the world today based on its principles of given opportunities to every citizen of this world. To the United States, three things are basically what they expect from any human being to choose to live and seek opportunities there. What the U.S expects from all citizens and aspiring citizens is Honesty, Hard work, Compassion and obedience to laws and rules of the game. People excel in whatever endeavor so long as they are honest, hard working, compassionate and lawful. Until the advent of Usian Bolt from Jamaica, the best of athletes in the world represented the United States when you remember the likes of Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis etc. Until the Beijin Olympics when China topped the medal chat, the United States was regularly wining and most of the athletes have African roots. Their most celebrated Basket-ballers have African roots. They simply believe and respect hard work and competence. This is why Barack Obama, whose close ancestry is Kenya in Africa, was able to become the President of that powerful country. Obama’s father, not grand or great-grand father was from Kenya. Interestingly also, he became a President straight from the Senate. In Nigeria, when a Senator aspires to be President, he or she is termed unserious unless if he rose to the position of Senate President. But where merit counts, people should be able to get to any level in places they have lived lawfully. If you take a look the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Dubai is the most celebrated, the most visited and the gets the highest investment, the reason is mainly because the Government of Dubai has opened it to the entire world. Everyone is welcome while the country ensures that their laws are obeyed and people don’t engage in criminal acts. Visa to Dubai is the easiest, there are nationalities of the entire world investing and working there but the country has very less crime rate, what this means is that you can open up to people without compromising safety and other norms and values. Over 70 percent of those that do businesses in Dubai are from other parts of the world. My dream is to open up Borno to make it a window not just Nigeria but to Africa. This is why I am working with respectable persons like Chief Audu Ogbeh, not because we do not have Borno people as credible as he is but because we want to market Borno, sell it to other Nigerians even though the Boko Haram have made things very terrible. So, my brothers and sisters, I want you to regard yourselves as part of Borno. I have lived in Calabar also in the Niger Delta. I served there and ate Edi-Ka-Ikong soup. I have lived in Lagos and ate Amala and Ewedu soup. I am first and foremost a Nigerian before being a Borno man and we should see ourselves as one. I urge you to get involved in anything in Borno State as long it is lawful for you. You are not second fiddles as far I am concerned. We will ensure that your rights are given to you without demanding for them and privileges are granted without you requesting for them. Ofcourse you know, that in life, we demand for our rights and request for privileges. As a matter of privilege, I am very much aware that there are teachers, nurses and people of many works of life amongst you. We are building an estate specifically for teachers and it is the first of estate for teachers in the whole of Nigeria. Our plan is that when the houses are completed, we will hand them over to the NLC, through the Nigeria Union of Teachers to allocate the houses based on the rules we will jointly set. I will make a case that five of these houses are given to teachers from amongst you. We will give priority to any teacher that is here as mark of fairness. I want the Chief of Staff who is the chairman of the construction committee to please note this and convey my special request to the NLC and NUT. I do not plan to make any additional request from them regarding those houses. We are building nurses village, we will give two flats to your members who are nurses. The Chief of Staff will also ensure that.We are one people, the majority amongst us in terms of numerical strength, whether in tribe or religion must give sense of belonging to the minority. It is people like Elder Edwin Clark that do not really understand who we are and who we should be in this country. Power doesn’t last forever. Every opportunity you have is one that you must miss someday, however long. He is 87, he should be a father to all, and he should champion the course of nation building and not sectional interest, if for nothing else, at least for his age. From the moral point of view, God gives some consideration to the youngest and the eldest. Let us continue to urge him in a polite manner, to see Nigeria beyond his walking stick. The hat that he puts on should provide shield not only to his grey hairs but to the young hairs of other Nigerians regardless of where they come from. Age should always go with wisdom of tolerance, wisdom of truth and defence of it, wisdom of togetherness and national unity. I urge all of us to continue to pray for Borno and Nigeria. We should continue to be law abiding and work in our separate ways for the return of peace in Borno and Nigeria as a whole.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 03:27:10 +0000
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