The Minister of Information and supervising Minister of Defence, Labaran Maku, on Monday said the Federal Government has made security its priority in the North Eastern part of the nation which is being terrorized by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, he said the economy of the region cannot flourish if insecurity persists and so funds are budgeted to tackle the activities of insurgents.
Asked what the current administration is doing to revive economic boom to Northern Nigeria where terrorist attacks have been frequent, the Minister said “the most important support of government is security because without security you cannot have economic recovery.
So the most important activity of government today is that we are spending so much money in the North East. If you look at all the military operations, we spend billions (and billions) monthly to give the North East security. That is the first investment,” he said, and added that “we are spending more money in the North East today than in any part of the country because of the cost of insurgency.”
He faulted the performance of the sitting governors in the affected states, adding that “many state governments have failed in that region” as they rank the lowest in the economic indices of the nation.
“The last time we were reviewing MDG’s, we found that Yobe was having less than 20 percent primary school enrollment. This is unacceptable,” he said, considering the resources that are allocated to them by the Federal Government.
However, despite the shortcomings of the state governments, he disclosed that it is the duty of the federal government to come to the rescue hence the decision to set aside resources for North East Nigeria in 2014 budget.
“So the first investment is security. The second one is the extra federal intervention the president has promised and we already have seen that in this year’s budget that is coming up.”
He called on the state governments involved to “get their priorities right and network with the federal government.”
