The United Nations (UN), on Thursday said it is working towards ending the terrorist activities of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria by August 2018.
Edward Kallon, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, who stated this at a media breakfast meeting in Abuja also demanded that “the fire in the northeast should be out in the next 18 months.”
Kallon described the Nigerian humanitarian crisis as the fourth largest in the world after Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
He said the crisis posed a threat to the nation’s long term economic development, but was “solveable,” and that the UN would support the federal and state governments on it.
“I want to say that we have a very short window of opportunity and my calculation is 18 months, we have to put out the fire in the northeast of Nigeria in 18 months. If we don’t succeed in putting out the fire in 18 months the situation will become protracted and chronic and some of the displacement cases can take over ten years,” he noted.
According to him, everybody knows that the root causes of the crisis is prolonged development deficit, which has over the years been compounded by economic, political and religious factors.
“Whatever we are doing now is a tip of the iceberg, but the heavy lifting is how we can translate this acute reality into an opportunity for northeast Nigeria,” he said.
Kallon further expressed that there was need for political intervention, in addition to the military intervention in the crisis.
He said it was not an illusion that some efforts need to be made to engage some elements of Boko Haram who were forced to join the group in the search for peace as a solution to the crisis.
“We need a three prong approach, the military effort is very critical and I want to state that without the military, we would never have been able to do any humanitarian assistance in the area, but in parallel to this, there is also need for a political process to see how a durable solution could be provided,” he posited.
In order to provide a lasting solution, Kallon called for the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the federal and state governments in tackling the situation.
“If I have my way, I will advocate for the SDGs as a marshal plan for recovery of the northeast, which will be a formidable approach to addressing the short term needs, and also embarking on the long-term development aspirations of the people of this part of the world,” the UN resident coordinator posited.
“I call on governments of Nigeria to come up with marshal plan for the implementation of the SGDs. This is the way forward for this nation and if the states can own this development aspiration the people of Nigeria stand to benefit,” he concluded.
