Zulum: Boko Haram Destroyed Over 90 Per Cent Of Houses In Borno

Governor Babangana Zulum stated yesterday that over 90 percent of houses in Borno State were destroyed by Boko Haram.

He said fortunately in the last twelve years, his predecessor and himself have so far rebuilt more than 30-40 per cent of such houses in the state.

Zulum said despite the effort by the administration, the state still has a huge significant deficit, amounting to not less than 500,000.

The Governor said this yesterday in Abuja at the International Organisations for Migration’s (IOM) housing design award ceremony titled, ‘Home after Crisis’, that brought together about 1,600 designers, architects, engineers from over 100 countries.

He said: “The Government of Borno and that of the Northeast would provide the political will needed to partner with IOM and other organisations in order to build more homes for the families of displaced communities.

“Very soon, we would be entering into an agreement with IOM to see how we can partner together and build more houses.

“The security situation In Borno state has improved by over 90 per cent, we are doing very well, we have many safe areas so we are going to do everything possible to ensure that houses are built and communities resettled in a dignified manner, according to the Kampala convention.

“When it comes to the deficit of housing in Borno state, I can’t give a specific figure but I can say that almost 90 per cent of our houses were destroyed by Boko Haram but within the last 12 years, beginning with my predecessor till date, I think we have built more than 30-40 per cent but we still have a huge significant deficit, amounting to not less than 500,000.”

Chief of Mission IOM Nigeria, Laurent De Boeck said the organisation is working on constructing about a million houses in Maiduguri and Yola using the wining designs of the competition.

He added, “We have already started building the housing prototypes in Maiduguri, we would soon do same in Yola.

“As for the prototypes we have looked into accessing some lands where the safety is offered and then we start building. The spectacular thing is that it is low cost, using local materials, we are training the population there to also build themselves and recycle what exists around them like metals for covering the houses. We have the aim of a million houses in Maiduguri and Yola but we hope that it would also go further to other parts of the country because we are working with the private sector for potential support. So we are hoping that we can shapen how houses are built not only in the Northeast but Nigeria.”

The three wining designs from the competition won €10,000 Euros in Total with the first and second positions won by Nigerian architects and the third by a German team and the teams won €5000 for first prize, €3000 for second and €2000 for the third.