Vice-President Kashim Shettima, has said that the North-East region is poorer than Chad and Niger Republics if the region were to be treated as a nation.
The Vice-President stated this at the weekend, while speaking in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, when he flagged-off palliative distribution for states in the region by the North East Development Commission, (NEDC).
While lamenting the region’s challenges, the former governor of Borno State said the North-East is poorer than Chad and Niger Republics if they were to be treated as a nation.
Shettima said the post-insurgency assessment in the North-East region showed that attacks by Boko Haram cost the region $9 billion, out of which Borno State, the epicentre of the insurgency, lost $6.8 billion.
He lamented how several emirs were displaced without any emirate to govern, stressing that Maiduguri was effectively the centre of the Boko Haram attack.
The palliative distribution for States in the region is the initiative by the NEDC as part of its efforts to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on people in the region.
