Remarks At Palace Of Shehu Of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, AT THE PALACE OF THE SHEHU OF BORNO, ABUBAKAR IBN UMAR GARBAI, IN MAIDUGURI, BORNO STATE ON TUESDAY, 21^ST OF MAY, 2019

Protocol

I pay my due respect to all of you and to say that I am very, very deeply grateful for the warm welcome that you’ve given me since I arrived here.

Your Eminence, I’m here principally to commission projects that were done under the administration of my brother, His Excellency, Dr. Kashim Shettima.  And he has done extremely well as I heard Your Eminence say—so many different projects.  As a matter of fact, yesterday night we had to revise the projects.  Otherwise, we would have been here commissioning projects possibly till May 29 when he leaves.  So, I think we decided to abridge it so that we don’t do too many projects today.

But I think it is really a tribute to his dedication to the people of the state and to the most course of all, which is the cause of humanity that he has done so much and has extended himself in so many different ways.  Many of those who work with me who are here, testify to the way in which His Excellency, the governor, has completely taken to heart, the problems and challenges of this state and how on occasion, he personally drove them to Chibok, actually driving all of them in his car.

I think that he has demonstrated the sort of, not just empathy, but a sort of commitment we want to see in all of our leaders all over in this country.

President Muhammadu Buhari has frequently commented about the good fortune of the people of Borno State that we have a governor such as himself at a time of the greatest challenges that the state had.  And I’m sure that his worthy successor will not only take off from where he stopped but do even better.

I pray that the Almighty God will help you, Prof, to do a more excellent job.  You have a great foundation and I think you have enough support.  All of us will be cheering you on and support you, whichever way we can.

Your Eminence, the concerns of rebuilding the North East remains possibly the most important challenge we have as a government.  And we want to assure you that remains on the front burner of the Federal Government.  Recently, the president signed into law the North East Development Commission Act.  So we now have a law which backs the vehicle for the real development and rehabilitation of the North East.

I think with the kind of commitment of those who have been appointed to run the affairs of the NEDC, we are bound to see a great deal of improvement in the pace of rehabilitation and in the pace of reconstruction of the North East, and in particular Borno, which of course is the worst hit by most of the insurgency.

Your Eminence can remain at rest that we will do our very best and we will continue to support you in whatever way that is necessary.  And to the good people of this state, we will continue to give all of our help.  I’m sure that you realize how special Borno is.  The president was here barely two weeks ago.  And now I am here.  So, it must mean that Borno has a special place in all of our hearts.

So, I would like to thank you again, Your Eminence, for the warm hospitality as usual and to wish you prosperity in your kingdom.  We pray that the Almighty God will help you all the time and that you will continue to offer leadership, the kind of leadership, strong leadership, you have shown all these years.

May your shadow never grow less.

Thank you very much.