The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has charged Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to contribute to the rebuilding, reconstruction, reconciliation and resettlement of victims of insurgency in the North East.

Osinbajo gave the task at the Northeast Humanitarian Multi-stakeholder Engagement meeting in Maiduguri, Borno.

He said that the situation in the region would have been worse without the intervention of the CSOs and donor partners.

“The many civil society groups, funding partners, regional and international partners, have given up their time, resources and even lives in some cases and deserve to be commended.

“But for you, first responders we would have been far worse off than we are today.

“The CSO community is the heart and conscience of underserved people and communities.

“You have shown uncommon compassion and offered a voice to the most vulnerable, especially when others were nowhere to be found.

“You have supported governments at all levels, in this region in particular, when things were very tough.

“As we deal with what is evidently the greatest human challenge in Nigeria's recent history, we will need you to be even stronger.

“This challenge will require dedication, innovation and creativity especially from the NGO and CSO community.

“This meeting is more important for the fact that it is taking place here in Maiduguri; the city that has suffered the most loss of lives and property in the past six years of the Boko Haram scourge.

“Your being here underscores not just our empathy for the victims of the terror but also demonstrate the outreach that we all feel about the mindless killings, abductions and wanton destruction perpetrated by the sect.

“Our being here was equally a collective determination to find the most cost effective ways to intervene in restoring the dignity of the tens and thousands of IDPs from the North-East.

“We may not know them by their names or faces, we may speak different faith but we are in the eyes of our Creator one and the same.

“We too, but for time and chance could have been in the same position.

“Rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitation would cost money and time but no money nor time can treat the trauma or loss of family; the shame and the pain of the raped, the scars and tears of the abducted.”

Also speaking, Alhaji Muhammad Sidi, the Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said Nigeria has suffered a lot of natural and manmade disasters.

Sidi said the unfortunate and sad development has posed numerous humanitarian challenges calling for collaborative action to rebuild the region.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was also attended by the governors of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe as well as the deputy governors of Taraba, Gombe and Bauchi states.

Others were top officials and representatives of UN agencies, International Committee of the Red Cross, state emergency management agencies and CSOs. (NAN)

•Photo shows VP Osinbajo.

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