A Presidential Steering Committee on the Bama Initiative chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo held a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock, Abuja.

The meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; ‎the Chief of Air Staff, Abubakar Sadiq, Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Vice Chairman of the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative, Tijjani Tumsah‎, Borno State Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Prof Babagana Umara Zulum and the Chairman, Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Engr Ahmed Satomi amongst senior officials at the Federal Government level.

The meeting focused on fine-tuning the implementation of a joint intervention between the Federal Government and the Borno State Government to fast-track the rebuilding of Bama town and full restoration of civilian authority and means of livelihoods under a pilot programme that is tagged Bama Initiative.

Under the initiative, the Federal Government is to provide 63 percent of funding while the Borno State Government is to contribute 37 percent as counterpart. The Initiative is being used as a test phase to be replicated in rebuilding other communities affected by the Boko Haram insurgency across Borno and the rest of the northeast.

The choice of Bama was based on the Post Insurgency Recovery and Peace Building Assessment Report prepared by the Presidency in collaboration with the World Bank, the European Union and Government in the six States of the northeast which recorded Bama local government as being the worst destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents in the entire geo-political zone.

The initiative involves the training and setting up of a special joint security team to be deployed to Bama in order to fully restore civil authority while another group of trained security guards are to be deployed to secure farmlands to enable full returning displaced have secured access to the farms and other means of livelihoods. The initiative also involves setting up a green area for the purpose of modern Agriculture amongst other attractive components. (PRNigeria)