North-east: PCNI Seeks Return of 1,000,000 Children Back to Schools

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Presidential Committee on North-east Initiative (PCNI) has rolled out plans that will facilitate the reopening of schools to pave the way for the return of about 1,000,000 children to schools in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency that led to humanitarian crises in the region.
The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsah, disclosed yesterday at the end of the committee’s first plenary session for 2017 that it would intervene and ensure the reopening of schools to allow children whose education has been disrupted for between three to six years in the three affected states of Bornu, Adamawa and Yobe.

The children constituted the bulk of the estimated 2.4 million refugees distributed in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps in the region.
The restiveness in the region has led to the loss of 20,000 lives with a further 2,000 people said to be missing.

Tumsah said the committee that met yesterday comprised of the five sub- committees to implement its rehabilitation framework plan for the year. The sub-committees are; humanitarian, security and stability, education, economic development and finance.

Aside from the recovery of schools, Tumsah said that the committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari and headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), also discussed plans to lay solid foundations leading to the implementation of other high impact projects in the region, including rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement
He said most of the affected people are subsistent farmers who lived in the host communities and IDP camps.

“The PCNI works with government and international donor agencies to make sure we restore the children that don’t have access to education and who are facing acute malnutrition. Even before the insurgency the North east is adjudged to be one of the poorest on earth because we have the challenges of poverty and degraded environment. This insurgency has only compounded our problem such that they have become so devastating that extra attention is required to resolve it,” he said.