Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has deplored the deplorable conditions of border communities in Nigeria.
He vowed that the government would address the deplorable conditions of border communities in the country by engaging State Governments in tackling the challenges.
The Vice President who spoke today when he received the Senate Committee on States and Local Governments led by its Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Gumel and the Chief Executives of Border Communities Development Agency and the National Boundary Commission at the House, Abuja, said: “our border communities are in a state of despair. We need to pay a lot attention to them.”
Professor Osinbajo said that without the states cooperating there might be not much achievement either with the border communities or the boundary commission, even as he offered to make presentation to the Govovernors at the National Economic Council (NEC), in order to highlight the enormity of the challenges.
He said that phased approach will be taken in solving the problems, considering government’s lean resources, saying that roads, markets, schools and other social basic infrastructure must be provided at the border communities to avoid intrusion by foreigners.
Earlier, the Chairman, Senate Committee on State and Local Government, Senator Abdullahi Gumel had told the Vice President that they were at the State House to brief him on the result of their oversight which they conducted on some of the border communities with the finding that facilities at the border communities are in the state of disrepair.
Both the Director General, National Boundary Commission, Dr. Mohammed Ahmed and Executive Secretary, Border Communities Development Agency, Engr, Numoipre Wills attended the meeting. [myad]
