Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has opined that the frequent sharing of food palliatives by his government is necessitated by the need to strike a balance between addressing the urgent needs of the people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency and laying the groundwork for a lasting change, rather than to generate dependency among the people on the government.
He revealed this during a chat with journalists while supervising the sharing of food palliatives with the people at Gajiram, Nganzai Local Government Area on Saturday.
"We are not generating dependency among the people. Citizens should recall that what we are doing is crucial. We only distribute food items in places exceedingly affected by insurgency, and gradually, we are transiting out”, the governor asserted.
While food palliatives are distributed to people in danger most affected by the over-one-decade crisis, remarkable development has been achieved in all the critical sectors such as education, healthcare,security, and infrastructure in Borno State.
So people should note that the palliative sharing was to rescue communities whose means of livelihood were cut off by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
Governor Zulum stressed the need to set up a sustainable foundation for long-term development rather than relying on short-term solutions like palliative sharing.
The governor directed the sharing of food and non-food items and N25 million in cash to about 25,000 families, consisting of 10,000 males and 15,000 females.
Each of the male heads of households was given a bag of maize and a bag of rice, while about 15,000 families each received one wrapper and N5,000 cash.
Zulum appreciated the federal government for releasing about 15,000 bags of rice to the state through the North-East Development Commission.
