We cannot afford to fail the vulnerable among us - V P Osinbajo

This was the crux of the message I took on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Emergency Management Agency Summit in Maiduguri, today.


One of the effects of the Boko Haram Insurgency is that many of our citizens have become Internally Displaced.

For President Buhari and I, there is the outrage and anger that we feel about the mindless killings, abductions and wanton destruction perpetrated by Boko Haram.
Our being at the summit expresses our collective determination to find the most creative ways to intervene in restoring the dignity, family lives and livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of our citizens who have been Internally Displaced in the North East.

We may not know them by name or face, we may speak a different language or dialect, or belong to a different faith, but we are in the eyes of our creator one and the same. We too, but for time and chance could have been in exactly the same position.

This region has suffered tremendously in the past six years. The destruction of infrastructure, farmlands, businesses, and trades. The destruction of schools and the loss of school years .

The shame of the raped, the scars and fears of parents of the abducted and kidnapped, The bewilderment that comes with loss of homes, possessions and livelihoods, the hundreds of thousands of orphaned children.

Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of the Civil Society Organizations, and in conjunction with the Federal Government, deal with this challenge.

Nigeria will prevail.