Shettima appoints new SSG, retains special assistants, HoS

GOVERNOR Kashim Shettima of Borno State has appointed a new Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Usman Shuwa Jidda, while Mr. Yakubu Bukar and Alhaji Modu Musa were retained as the Head of Service and Chief of Staff to the Government House respectively.

Other appointments include the re-appointment of the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Malam Isa Umar Gusau and Senior Special Assistants, Usman Kumo on Media (Radio) and Kwapchi Bata Dibal on Media (Television).

The appointment and re-appointment were contained in a statement by the Permanent Secretary, Administration and General Services of the Governor’s Office, Hajiya Maryam Bukar Abba Ibrahim, which was made available to newsmen in Maiduguri.

The statement reads in part: “These appointments are with immediate effect following the dissolution of the cabinet on May 27, 2015, and in accordance with the powers vested on the governor by Section 208 sub-section 2 (a) and (d) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Other re-appointments, according to the statement, include Senior Special Assistants of Yusuf Usman Shettima and Abba Bashir Talbari (Social Media), Baba Zannah Abdulkarim, (Special Projects), Mustapha Mohammed Kukawa and Christopher Godwin Akaba (Special Duties).

The governor, while congratulating all the appointees for their
well-deserved re-appointment, urged them to contribute much towards development of the state despite Boko Haram insurgency that had lasted for over five years.

In another development, authorities of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State have said that many indigent and orphan students in the varsity cannot meet up to their respective “needs and requirements” in school due to the massive displacement of their parents and guardians as a result of Boko Haram attacks and bombings in the North-East sub-region of the country.

The VC of the university, Prof. Ibrahim Njodi, who disclosed this to officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) led by its Director-General, Mohammed Sani Sidi, during a courtesy visit to his office in Maiduguri, said many of the students on and off campus can no longer meet their minimum requirements and physical needs to carry out their academic activities, including practical in laboratories and on farms.

His words: “The academic and practical challenges of these students, who are mostly orphans, call for urgent attention. I am therefore calling on NEMA and other well-meaning individuals and corporate organisations to quickly intervene for assistance.

“We have in our hands the problem of several indigent and orphan students. The university is now faced with students who cannot meet their physiological needs and minimum requirements to carry out their academic studies. The inability of the internally-displaced parents to meet the school needs of their children calls for urgent attention.”

Responding, the NEMA director-general pledged to direct the North-East office of the agency to meet with the authorities of the university with a view to planning ways of addressing the challenges facing the affected students.

He also commended the university for partnering with the agency and being among the six Nigerian universities that established a linkage with NEMA for the take-off of a Centre for Disaster Risk Management, which the UNIMAID said has graduated about 250 post-graduate students.