 Good morning everyone to our audience here at the United States Institute of Peace and to our audience online in Africa and especially to our audience in Nigeria. We're extremely pleased to welcome all of you this morning to this online discussion, this webcast discussion with 12 governors from Northern Nigeria. These governors have been here in Washington D.C. for a three-day conference at the United States Institute for Peace discussing the social, economic and security challenges of Northern Nigeria. This group has been led by the distinguished and honorable governor of Borneo State and the chairman, the current chairman of the Northern Nigeria Governor's Forum. This morning he and his 10 colleagues will participate in a online discussion on Nigeria beyond Boko Haram. This discussion follows two days of very intense conversations with senior officials at the United States in the United States government and with scholars and researchers and experts at the United States Institute of Peace and from NGOs and activist groups here in Washington. For those of you who are online, I would say that the governors have been extraordinarily busy and engaged. Yesterday they had an opportunity to have a private meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department. They met at the White House for 50 minutes with Ambassador Susan Rice, President Obama's senior foreign policy advisor and the director of the National Security Council staff. They also had an hour-long meeting with Gail Smith, who is the USAID administrator and the senior Obama administration expert and leader on development assistance programs. These are just some of the many activities that they have been engaged in and discussions they have held. This morning we are very privileged to be able to have this discussion on Nigeria beyond Boko Haram, looking at some of the economic and social reconstruction and redevelopment challenges that the governors face. This discussion here at USIP this morning will be led by two well-known and distinguished journalists who are currently working at the Voice of America. For many of our listeners in Africa, they will know them because they listen to them and see them on TV every day. Two moderators are Ali Hu Mustafa and Miryama Diallo, both extraordinarily capable and well-known, and they will lead this discussion today. This is the beginning of our third day of programming, and beyond today's morning activities here, they will be discussing with a number of American businesses investment and development opportunities, as well as talking about a number of social and economic issues. But I'm going to turn this webcast and online discussion over to Ali Hu and Miryama to lead. But I would say to our audience, listen in and send any questions that you have to Facebook and Twitter. Our hashtag is hashtag ask NGGOs, and I'll repeat that hashtag ask NGGOs. I will now turn this over to Ali Hu, Mustafa, and Miryama Diallo to begin the discussion with the 12 governors who are with us at USIP today. Thank you, Ambassador Carlson. We're very appreciative of the opportunity given to us to be part of this discussion, and we welcome everybody around the world to what is going to be a conversation this afternoon. We are not going to have the kind of debate you saw last night, just to make that clear. But we're going to have about 90 minutes of conversation. We're going to be taking a lot of questions from people watching and listening to us. I would like to first of all introduce again my colleague, Miryama Diallo Crandall, who is a very prominent TV personality at the Voice of America from Senegal. I'm from Nigeria. I sit next to my own governor from Sokota State. And I want to say that when we receive questions, everybody is among the governors. Of course, it's free to give us their thoughts on the question or on the topic that is being asked. We would like to limit our responses as much as possible to about two minutes. So all the governors may have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion that we're going to have. I would also like to urge the governors to please turn on the mic when you speak so people can hear what you have to say. So without further ado, I will turn to Miryama to ask for the first question that we have received from some of our listeners. Miryama? Thank you, Alu. And very quickly, just echoing Ambassador Carson and Alu, and welcome you to Washington. I'm sure you've seen how exciting it's an exciting time to be here as we also, as the United States, get ready to elect the next president. So I'm going to go ahead and go right on. We're getting questions from Twitter and Facebook. And the first question comes from Anas Aminu-Korau, and the question is, what will the governors do about the issue of the hungry in IDP camps and the diversion of the food and other relief materials meant for them? So I'm going to turn to maybe Governor Shatima or whoever else wants to take over, but your call on this one. Thank you so much. It's undeniable that we have very huge challenges over the issue of the IDPs. We have 153,612 IDPs. Then the camps, in my degree for now, and we have 258,821 IDPs in the satellite camps spread across the nooks and crannies of the state. I don't have the number for the IDPs in Adamawa, Taraba, in Nigeria Republic, in Cameroons, in Chad, and in other parts of Nigeria. We are making efforts in partnership with the international community towards addressing the food security needs of the IDPs. Epos are in the pipeline? Yes. Some food donated by the federal government meets their way on their way to Maiduguri. But I believe this is an issue that was raised on the floor of the Senate, and Epos are being made to retrieve back those stolen commodities. But let me make it very clear that this fixation on the IDP camps, in as much as we have needs in the IDP camps, we have 1,446,812 people living within the host community in Maiduguri alone. I think the number the IDPs living within the host community, power outnumber those living in the officially recognized camps at a ratio of about 4 to 1. So let's pay attention, because even in the best of times, our people were the poorest of the poor, and now Boko Haram has further popularized them. So believe me, those living within the host community are not finding life easier. In part to be quite blunt with you, those in the IDP camps are the BIPs amongst the IDPs, because at least they are getting medical attention, issues of schooling, and issues of feeding. But the most important thing for me is the leader of the state with the highest number of IDPs in the country, beyond life in the IDP camps. Let's find ways of restoring the dignity of our people. IDP camps, historically speaking, the biggest IDP camp in the world is the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya that had a population of 300,000 people. The Kenyan government had to finally summon the political willpower to close out that camp. In the Sambian, our camps that are existing in Meduguri and other locations are pregnant with lots of challenges, of drug abuse, of early child marriages, of prostitution rings, of gangsterism. We have so many challenges, and as long as we allow those institutions to be entrenched, we shall all be prepared for a harvest of negativities in the coming months and years. So my target is to really see the return of the people to their homes. Well, are there any plans, actually, because there's talk about closing them in 2017? Certainly. We hope spring's eternal from the hearts of men, and most importantly, we know the tremendous epos exerted by the federal government towards bringing the madness in the northeast to an end. So in communities where there is peace and tranquility, we see no reason why we should stop the people from going back to their villages. Yes, we appreciate and respect the Kampala Convention. But I know my people better than anybody here. We are a poor but very proud people, and we want to restore back their dignity. Thank you. But somebody cannot sit down in Washington or in London or anywhere and ram down our throat that the people should not be allowed to go back to their homes. We have a follow-up question related to that. I don't know if any of the governance is ... But let me ask this question from Fatima. She sent a question about the SEMIDP issue asking, what are your plans, meaning you, the governors, for IDPs or people in the IDPs who are not willing to return to their communities after the closure of those IDPs? Since most ... A lot of the governance here actually do maintain those IDPs. I was wondering if anybody has some thoughts on that. Should I go to the governor of Boucher State, Barista, and Imamut? Thank you very much. Indeed, we have quite a number of IDPs. The IDP phenomenon in Boucher State started much earlier than Boko Haram. It started as a result of internecine conflicts in the north-central and parts of Boucher State itself to the extent that today, when one travels from Jaws to Bouchi, you'll come across at least five well-established villages that are villages that have been established by IDPs, and that's the spirit with which Boucher State handles the IDPs. Indeed, I had a story when I was distributing sids and farm inputs during the 2015 rainy season to IDPs. The leader of the IDPs in Boucher State came out clearly in public and told everybody that even when peace returns to their place, they are not going back because whatever they are looking for, they are getting. For example, they have been given land to farm, and at the time he was making the statement, I was distributing sids and inputs free of charge to them. This is a plan for those IDPs that are not going to go back home. We will take them in, as we have taken them in. In Boucher State today, you can't find a single IDP camp, but that is not because we don't have them and we don't have them, but we have taken them in in the African spirit of being your brother's keepers, and that is the way we are going. Thank you. I just want to remind everyone, if you've just tuned in, we are live at the U.S. Institute of Peace, right here in the heart of Washington, D.C., with governors from Nigeria. We're talking about paths toward peace and progress. Thanks again, everyone for joining us online, and of course you can continue to send us questions at, we're live on Facebook, just enter the Keywords U.S. Institute of Peace, or you can also send us questions on Twitter, just use the hashtag AskNGov, so G-O-V-S. Let's move on. We have a question from Facebook, and this one says it's from N-W-R-M Samuel Acolyza. He says, what will be done to promote family and community reconciliation? I trust the humanitarian organizations and NGOs, but what plans do the governors have? Anybody want to take on that one? I think this question is related to the nature of Nigeria, and I think this gentleman who is asking this question is seeking some clarification on what we are doing to promote cohesion. Anybody? We know you are doing a lot. Yes, we can. They're saying that what will be done to promote family and community reconciliation, it says that he trusts the humanitarian organizations and NGOs, but what are the plans, what are governors doing about that? Thank you so much. With regards to family and community reconciliation, the beauty about as sad as it is, the tragedy that had befallen the Northeast is that it succeeded in poverty uniting our people, instead of dividing them. Boko Haram doesn't discriminate between a Muslim and a Christian. Boko Haram doesn't discriminate between a Kanoori, a Pulani, and a non-Kanoori or a non-Pulani. These are lunatics held bent on a suicidal path, and they kill and maim anyone they find along the way. But most importantly, for the leadership, we are making efforts to win the hearts and minds of all our people, but we are paying special attention to our Christian brethren. For instance, just last week, we released 100 million Naira for the reconstruction of churches destroyed in Askira-Uba and Chibok local government areas. We have not released funds for the construction of mosques. Mosques and churches were equally destroyed, but it's all about winning the hearts and minds of the people and Borno, which is the epicenter of the whole crisis. Yes, we had some conflicts in Goda, born out of the Boko Haram crisis between the Muslims and the Christians. But of the 300 million compensation we paid in Goda, nearly 200 million went to the rebuilding of churches that were destroyed by the Boko Haram. So we are making efforts, we are reaching out to Kanoori to establish trust and competence. And ours is different from the Rwandan tragedy in some ways, because there is no stigmatization of families per se or partaking in that criminality, in that bloodshed. Yes, family members from all our societies were involved. So it's something that we have to really work as a community, as a family, as a team. And locally, even for the people that are residing in Bochi, in Taraba, because of age, all ties of paternity and friendship, they are very much welcome. The governor of Taraba State, it's a Borno ancestry, it's from the Kwararapa Kingdom. They migrated from the Lekchad region down to their present abode, which can be attested to by Professor Padin. So many of his kinsmen are along the shores of the Lekchad special men. So quite a number of people have resettled in Taraba. Thank you, Your Excellency. I'd like to ask the governors on my right here this question. This is about security. I realize that maybe if we don't pick on them, they might just decide not to say anything. I want to go to the governor of Kwararapa State, Governor Abdul Fattah Ahmed. Your Excellency, this question is from Banga Isaac Ani. He said, many people mistrust security operations or operators due to past abuses. What are the governors doing to address that? Yeah, thank you very much. The issue of security is something that has to be pursued from an inclusive perspective. If truly you want the confidence to be built in between the populace and the government and, of course, the security agencies. And this we have sought to carry out by enhancing the interface between the public and the people and the security agencies. Firstly, we have, for instance, in Kwararapa, what we have is a robust security council and, of course, a robust security committee. This allows for stakeholders at different levels to be involved. And it gives us the opportunity of getting the first time information on clear security challenges in specific areas. And solutions are made available in such a way and manner that the people are carried on in the process of securing themselves. So in other words, there's a lot more promotion of community policing now, which gives everybody the confidence that security agencies, resources are channeled towards ensuring peaceful coexistence. And this has translated into a major conflict resolution process and a major peaceful coexistence amongst the people. It's a continuous thing because the communities are growing. New people are coming in daily with new challenges. So we keep looking at how to explore these ways and upscale how we reach out to the people. So by and large, the inclusiveness of the process has allowed a lot more confidence to be built in the security apparatus and, of course, in the implement of services. Thank you, Your Excellency. I want to do a quick follow-up on this. I know a lot of governors have been demanding for state police in the past. I'm not sure that all of them want the same thing. But since we're talking about the police and past abuses that some people are referring to, I would like any of the governors here to address that particular issue for the need for state police. Because some people have expressed the fear that if governors are allowed to control the police, some of them might misuse those police forces. Okay. Can we? Okay. And then we'll come back to you. All right. Who wants to address it? Sure. You can go ahead. Okay. That's the governor of Tarawa State, Mr. Deryos Ishaq. Deryos Dixen Ishaq, the governor of Tarawa State. I would like to address the issue of police, state police, because my state happened to be in the opposition. And we are not finding it easy for the police to take orders from us. Most of the commissioners feel they should take orders from the center. And that makes the running of the state very, very difficult. Particularly for me, that I came into the state and the state was in chaos. Completely the system and peace has run down. And I have managed within one year, five months to bring back the peace. But intermittently, you'll find when I need the police most, they are not there. And so that makes the running of the state difficult. It's just the issue of saying you are given the crown, but you have no power of the crown. And I think we copied our constitution from the U.S. from here. And we deleted some of the important aspects of it. And that is here, I'm seeing state police all over the place, even local government police and the federal police. I wonder why in Nigeria we won't have that. And that is very critical for someone who is in opposition. I don't think it's fair to have a governor who doesn't control the instrument of the power. That has been really hampering my peace progress. I would have done it faster if the police is totally in my control. Well, agreed. Here and there, you talk of abuses. But I think the benefits outweigh the abuses that will come. And by and large, I think our society is getting more and more enlightened. That you'll find that the abuses are being reduced in any case. And so I think that there is a need for the states to have police. Thank you, Your Excellency. Thank you. And I think Governor Ahmed, you wanted to say something on that as well. Yes. I was just trying to add a little bit that as a writer to what my colleagues from Tarabastira said, no doubt you see Nigeria is growing in size. Today we have close to 180 to 200 million Nigerians. And truly it's becoming a bit more difficult for the current policing system to take care of the critical needs of securing people's lives. And you will see that the way the system is sort of society is formed at different layers, communities, local governments, districts, geographical distribution. It is becoming clearer that we require different layers of policing to be able to get people to live very peacefully. If you look at it in the past, for instance in the 60s, we had different layers of policing and it worked efficiently. It all got wiped out because of the change in government in 1966-67. So I think it is very critical that we look at the other layers of policing, creating strict responsibilities for them and allow them to take that role. As it is today, it is already formed in a quasi-level. Almost every community you go to, you will see vigilantes, you will see other security levels formed by different groups. So getting to create a local policing system will only require us to formalize these structures into well-properly structured laws and give them responsibilities so that they can carry out a security support system. So no doubt the need for layers of police below the federal police is critical to support the growing size of the population. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Governor Ahmed. We're going to move on to another question. I think I'm pretty sure maybe it came from Twitter. Oh, would you like to say something? Absolutely. No, no, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you very much. Sorry, I'm also coming a little bit late. It's totally fine. And you introduce yourself very quickly so people know who you are. Thank you. Thank you very much. I just want to contribute to that on the issue of state police. That's the governor of Plato State. Yes. Yes. Well, as a speaker in the parliament at that time, we're all arguing against it, against the state police. But today I've seen a different dimension. And so I'm arguing for state police. Why? I look at it on two dimensions, one in respect to funding and also the knowledge of the environment. Because I see a policeman as somebody who must also understand the environment, understand the people, understand what he's doing in terms of his intelligence. So sometimes in Nigeria, what the difficulty we have is, for instance, posting a policeman from another state far away southeast to come to Plato, who doesn't understand the environment, he doesn't know the environment, he doesn't know the terrain to say he's doing the work of policing. So what we usually do now is to engage civilians. You saw what happened in the northeast. The civilian JTF were very effective because they understand the environment. To the extent now the army is beginning to absorb them or the police is beginning to absorb them. So why not turn them into state police? Just upgrade them into the state police. So I see knowledge of the environment as very important and terrain. And secondly, when you talk of funding in our constitution, it is very clear. They say governors achieve security officers. But in the real sense, we are not security officers because you can't give order to a commissioner of police. The only funding I see is the salaries that are paid to policemen. But the entire structure of funding and everything in the state is being done by the state government. So that will give us the reason for state police so that we control this or let us also control the state police. We have a lot of questions that are coming. But it appears like this state police issue is a very interesting one for the governor. Why don't we deal with some of the questions first? And then maybe if we need to come back. Because I saw the governor of Stoke-Lustet who was a former speaker of the House of Representatives shaking his head when something was mentioned about a discussion in the parliament regarding this issue. You won't take a minute to say a word or two on this. Well, thank you very much. I was shaking my head because while presiding over the House of Representatives of the federal public of Nigeria, where you have a macrocosm of the Nigerian state, every society, every constituency being represented, the House was almost unanimous on state police. Because we appreciate the volume of challenges associated with the current system of policing that we have in the country. So in the constitutional amendment, we also supported that the federal states should have state police because we believe that there is a need for that to complement the federal police. Thank you, sir. We'll move on to a few. And I think I'm going to combine actually this question, these two questions. The first one is from Isaac Oni. And he talks about, this is his question, youth in minority religions seem to have no place in leadership, potentially leading to future crisis. What are the governors doing to address this? And while we're at it, let me just touch on another question that's kind of similar in that same realm. And this one is from Benedict Sebasah. It's from Facebook. What are the plans for the governors to promote the rights of ethnic minorities in northern Nigeria? So ethnic minorities and also religious minorities who wants to take on that. And we'll go to the governor of the United States. Yes. Thank you. That's Governor Sunny Bellow from the United States. Thank you. I think there's a lot of misconception. And from the crop of governors we have right now, I believe everyone is dedicated and motivated towards inclusiveness in governance. And I also want to believe that from what I have seen so far, most of the governors have made efforts to see that they accommodate virtually every ethnic minority within the state. We certainly in Nigeria said we have done that. We have a very strong zoning system. In our states it's still very strong. We have three zones, A, B, and C, which zone A is mostly the new phase, zone B the baggies, and the house of land is zone C. And what we have done, we try to accommodate everyone, regardless of your religion, into government. And I think most of the APC governors, and I think most of the governors in the northern states of Nigeria are doing the same thing. So that is my own experience. I want to confirm that yes, it's a very sensitive matter, but we're doing our possible best to see that we include everyone in system of governance. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I want to go to the Deputy Governor of Canada, Mr. Profesor. I have a sub-worker for this question. Although I know this is a question that all the governors might want to address because it's one of those issues that keeps popping up, corruption. And this question comes from Nadira in New York. She says, what initiatives are you, are being initiated or implemented to tackle corruption in the United States? And Profesor Hafiz, do you want to take that one? Thank you very much. Let me speak specifically on colonel states on the assumption of office one and a half years ago. We revitalized the state public complaints and prosecution commission whose mandate by law was apart from the issue of arbitration, the issue of challenging corruption issues within the state service. And we appointed a very well-known human rights activist lawyer as the chair of that commission. And the activities actually since then have been very, very clear in terms of the vigor which the commission is pursuing the issue of corruption in the state. So much so that the national agencies, the AFCC and ICPC have found the commission as the WC partner. They are training them and they are collaborating even in their own national assignment with the state commission. And we are making a lot of progress in that respect. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Another reminder that we are live at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. If you just tuned in, we have the governors from the Nigerian Northern state who are visiting Washington talking about paths towards peace and progress. We're very happy to have them here. And I hope you're joining us online on Facebook Live. Just enter Keywords U.S. Institute of Peace. We're also on Twitter. Just use the hashtag ask N-G-G-O-V-S. I'm just spelling it all out. So hashtag A-S-K-N-G-G-O-V-S. So two Gs. Let's move on to more questions. And this time something that comes from Jason Warner. It's he's a professor at the U.S. Military Academy. And he is asking this question. What are the top misconceptions that American academics and policy works hold about the counterterrorism fight against Boko Haram? Who would like to take on that? Can you repeat the question please? The question is what are the top misconceptions that American academics, so American professors and policy works hold about the counterterrorism fight against Boko Haram? So basically what you're doing, I'm sure your states are doing a lot of work. And a lot of people like to criticize some of these governors you're not doing enough. So what are those misconceptions that you think American people usually have about that? One of the major misconceptions has to do with the nature of the crisis itself. There are these misconceptions that it has very serious linkages with the global terrorist network. It's largely a phenomenon born out of social exclusivity. It's largely locally based and driven by local grievances. Yes, efforts are being made by the terrorist linkup with the global jihadist community. But it's largely a local phenomenon that is capable of metastasizing into a bigger complagration if no efforts are made to nip in the birth the nascent insurgency. Because if you look at the location, of Nigeria and the location of the northeast, if you leave my degree in the morning, as bad as our roads are, by evening you will reach most of the trouble spots in Africa, Bangui in Central Africa, the double region of Sudan, Cuba in southern Sudan, and you can reach the border with Libya. So there's a need for the Western intelligence here and the academic community to make greater efforts towards enlightening the Western establishment on the need to pay greater attention to addressing the underlying causes of this insurgency in northern Nigeria. Because the whole of the north is a kek of gunpowder waiting to explode. Puberty is endemic in the north. We have become a byword for backwardness, most of the negative indices that is bringing the nation down from the north. So we need greater attention. It's ironical that Nigeria is not getting even one peep of the attention that is being showered on Afghanistan or on Syria. Yes, we are a medium in combination, but we are largely bipucated along two lines. The south is relatively much more prosperous than the north. They have better infrastructure, much more educated than the northern part of the country. But believe me, we are going to bow down. What are you doing about that? Like you just brought up a very good point about the differences between the south and the north. Especially the present crop of leaders in northern Nigeria are very determined to change the pace of the north, to change the narrative from negativity to positivity. And we are all passionate about education because it is the greatest game changer. We are all passionate about fighting poverty and fighting poverty entails investment in agriculture because ordinarily, as I have repeatedly said, another Nigerian has no business being poor. But the government, whether we like it or not, we are going to play a very prominent role in pushing our people out of poverty and we all know apology to anybody. Talking about private sector, the private sector can come in where there is a semblance of peace and tranquility. So we will put our people on the pest ladder of Jeffrey Sark's pest ladder of development and we'll invest in education as I have said, in job creation through agriculture, in gender empowerment, in gale child education, in healthcare, especially in strengthening our primary healthcare centers, in alternative energy sources because power is the same as what is known for any industrial takeoff. We don't have the power, but we have the resources. We'll make sure that our hydroelectric power project in Tairaba State is completed. The federal government is very much involved. We have gas deposits in the lecture in Bochistit. We want to harness our in-house potential with the limited resources available at our disposal to see that we have really redefined the meaning and concept of modern governance. Thank you. Let me, I just have to ask a very good question. You talk about gender parity and this is something that I notice from seeing all the governors here being all male, the ones that are visiting. So as a woman here, I just want to ask, maybe that's not your fault, but maybe people who are listening in Nigeria, what is being done to push some of these women into leadership positions like yours? Anybody want to take on that? Governor Abubakar from Bochi. I think the way on the place to start is by the efforts we are making in educating the girl child. We have an endemic problem in that. We have a problem generally without of school children, but particularly with the girl child. And we believe by educating the girl child, many other things will now fall into place, improved health care, improved participation in economic activities of the female gender. I think it's a build-up. It's a long-term solution, but I believe most, if not all, of the states of Nigeria have appreciated this and we are taking action in that respect. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Let me follow that. Okay. Because I'm a victim of it, and I think I'll speak better. The question I want to re-emphasize, there is a shakuhu, it's my name, I'm from Taraba State, and I competed against a woman who feels that the post should be allocated to her. You can see the debate yesterday with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The Americans didn't just pick her as a woman and say, we're allocating you to be a president. No, the woman was competing. She beat the men and the primaries and she's competing with another male and for the presidency. It's not an allocation issue. It starts from education. If the women folk are educated enough, just like Hillary Clinton educated enough to hold responsible positions for 30 years in governance and she's picking as somebody responsible enough to be a president and not a businessman, so you will see from there that yes, the Americans can cast their vote for that woman because she's capable, she's competent. You don't allocate a position as sensitive as senators or as governors or as presidents just for gender. Thank you, thank you sir. I think the women, go ahead, go ahead. I think my colleague is a bit emotional. Thank you. But I think we have educated women that can hold very high positions. But personally, I think it has more to the culture and the girl child education will help. For me, in most of the states, you would say that we're making efforts to accommodate women, especially in the executive council, which in my own case out of 14, we have three women. We have more women, special advice, I believe, and we have a few women director generals and they will grow into the political system. So it has to do with the culture, the environment. The Northern believe that women should remain within a certain level. But all that is changing with the girl child education and generally, if you improve the level of education within the Northern states and we do more awareness campaigns, I think it will help because I've met lots of intelligent women that can be president in Nigeria. So if you look at our secondary schools, I was, coincidentally, I was in university. I went to a convocation last week and I went to a secondary school graduation ceremony some weeks back. All the prizes went to women. All the prizes went to women and the number of women had to raise the number of men two to one. And they got all the prize, they took everything, they didn't leave anything for every man. They were so greedy that they won all the prizes. Greedy is good sometimes, but I just want to address real quick the governor that I think women don't expect those positions to just be allocated. And I think not just in Nigeria, let's talk about African general sub-Saharan Africa and women have been fighting and they know they have to fight for dispositions. You have the president of Liberia, you have Rwanda with half of the women members of parliament being women. So that's basically, I think it's the culture. How do you get more women to get involved? I think that's what we're talking about today. But thank you very much. Let's move on to another question. Let's have the deputy governor kind of quickly address this. We have other, we need to move too. Thank you very much Hafiz Abouker from Kano State. I think the point that we need to appreciate, honestly, that we are making substantial, we are making substantial progress on this issue. The same question would have been asked in 1960. We are asking the same question today in a situation where we have made substantial progress. Kano, for example, in northern Nigeria, actually is a home of conservatism in terms of these issues. But today in Kano, as I was saying yesterday, first in our primary school enrollment, we have reached a position of 49% against 51% of girl child enrollment. Our biggest problem in that case is the issue of retention. I was opportune to chair an implementation committee of certain of the state's second university. In the first year, we had 56% of the admissions being female and that trend has been maintained out to the third year now. Almost North West University is one of the first, we can see, female dominated university at the heart of northern Nigeria. Today in Kano, we have the first female accountant general. In addition to commissioners, my permanent secretary is a woman, both in my office, in the Ministry of Education. We are making substantial progress. We had the Chief Justice of the whole federation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a woman. So we are making substantial progress. I agree entirely that we need to also prioritize and also invest heavily in the issue of girl child education, but we must accept, I think, the progress that we have been made. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. Let's move to other issues. I want to go to the Governor of Sokto State because the Sultan of Sokto and some other religious leaders have recently worn against the current banning of the Shiite groups, which is in place in some states like Kaduna, Cassina, Plato, and probably Kano, questioning that such action could give birth to another hardline religious group. So my question to the Governor of Sokto State first and other governors are welcome to address the issue. How do you see the potential for peaceful, cohesive existence between the various Islamic states like the Shia, Izala, Tariqa, and the rest of them? Thank you very much. This is a very important issue, but before I take it on, my brother here, the Deputy Governor of Kano, who is sitting for the Governor of Kano, has been shaking his head and he even came out to say that they have not banned Shiite in Kano. And if I remember correctly, you have mentioned that Kano is one of the states that had banned Shiite activities. I'm not sure that the Sultan of Sokto has taken that position. I have just consulted the palace and the response I got is not confirmed that he has actually done that. However, that's not to say that it states like Plato and Kaduna have not banned Islamic movement of Nigeria. If I am right, I remember seeing online Governor Errify trying to clarify that he did not ban Shiite activities in Kano state. What has banned and prescribed is Islamic movement of Nigeria. Whatever it is, I believe that there is a need for first and most importantly dialogue with all various religious groups in Nigeria because all of us, even those who don't believe in God, require peace for them to live. So we must work all of us towards creating a very, very peaceful atmosphere, an atmosphere of accommodation, an atmosphere of understanding. It's not about being cohesive, but it's about being engaging and talking to ourselves. I believe that as a group, Northern Governors Forum, we are going to meet and discuss this very, very vex issue of Shia. And I recommend strongly that we should come as a body and speak on it with one voice. I would rather leave it at that at this stage. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else wants to address Mr. Lalong? You want to say something? Because I know your state is one of the taxes on question. Well, I also, on behalf of my state, will say that for obvious reasons, what decision we took at that time, as far as we were concerned, was to save the state. You know, plateau has been under crisis for a very long time. And when a dimension of that kind, magnitude, comes into plateau, it will take a different dimension. It will not be a shite against other denomination in Islam. It will be a Christian-Muslim fight, because any destruction that will lead to a destruction of a mosque or a church will take a religious dimension. And so plateau was just coming out of it, and then there was this influx of shite moving from Bauchi, moving from Kaduna, and all in plateau state for a procession. So plateau had no other option than to bind the shite procession at that time. We are not saying we are condemning the shite, but we are condemning any procession by shite in plateau state. And my reason was that if the headquarter in Kaduna was no longer existing, a branch should not exist in my state, there must be a headquarter, an institution. That's what I asked them. I said, if you don't have a headquarter, you can't form a branch in my state. Go back and sustain your headquarter before you come back to a branch. That's the position of plateau state. And as far as Angusan, and it was also coming towards the time that plateau was hosting the trade fair. Right now, trade fair is going on in my state. A trade fair was going to take place, and then the procession was going to frustrate investors from coming to my state. So we took that decision, and it helped us, and trade fair is right now going on in my state. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Governor. I don't want them to move their headquarter to plateau. Thank you. Thank you, Governors. I have to tell you, we are getting bombarded by questions, and I wish we had all day to get through all of them, but it looks like we won't be able to. So we'll move on to next questions. And I have to also say, I'm glad to see that the energy went completely up when we started talking about women. So I'm very glad about that, just a note. But let's move on to... I also wanted to contribute about the gender thing. Yes. I was going to ask a question. Okay, excellent. Because I think we have to take that seriously. Sure, go ahead. We have to take that seriously. Very good. I mentioned something about child rights law. What is happening to the child rights law? What units are doing about the child rights law? In Plattus State, we adopted it in 2004. Implementation, they are not giving a force to it for proper implementation. They don't have a problem of a girl child, a girl child has much problem about girl child in my state. Because in my state, we have many secondary schools for girls, and the best secondary schools are all reserved for women. So in terms of appointments, you find we are giving them, but not up to 30 percent. We may not be able to make up to 30 percent. But we measure up to that stage. So the question I will always say is that if a state like Plattus would doubt much problem about girl child is adopting the child rights law, what are other states doing to adopt the child rights act that will also help us in implementation and also educating the girl child? Thank you. Thank you, sir. That's a great question, and hopefully all the governors heard that and they will be able to contribute to that. I'll move on to this one. And speaking of girl child and speaking of education, we know that basically the narrative for Boko Haram is that education is not good for you. What just the term even means is that education is a sin. So how the question, this question comes from Alan Hester on Facebook, and he says, what is the primary way that the government or some of these governors can counter the narratives of Boko Haram? And this time speaking, when it comes to education. Governor Shatima, you want to go on? Because you wanted to say something on the whole women issue as well. Go ahead. In addressing the Boko Haram narrative, we are largely adopting a holistic approach encompassing the economic as well as the political. The past verse revealed to the Prophet Muhammad was ikrah, read. So Islam is not a buzz to education. And the Prophet of Islam says, seek for knowledge, even if it is in China. By then China was perceived to be the fastest place on end of the world. So that goes to show that Islam is not in anywhere opposed to the pursuit of education, be it Western or Islamic education. The most important thing is in as much as we are winning the boys war, we have to win the hearts and minds of the people by making massive investments in job creation, in education, and finding a space for them in the workstation of the 21st century. That's the best way of countering the Boko Haram narratives in the immediate and in the long term. Okay. Thank you sir. I want to go to the Bochi governor for this because this happens to look like a legal because I know I have a couple of lawyer governors including my governor here, but I want to go to Governor Abu Bakar from Bochi. Recently about 21 Chibo girls were released in Nigeria. While everybody was happy with that, some people did express some concern that if there was any swap between the federal government and the Boko Haram organization, there were reports that about four commanders of the Boko Haram were swapped for the 21 girls. Some people are asking the question, is that a good strategy to follow? Is that something that the government should be doing, swiping Boko Haram elements for the release of the Chibo girls? I think it's not strictly a legal question. The federal government of Nigeria has not confirmed that there was any swap with respect to the release of the Chibo girls. In fact, the federal government denied the fact that there was any swap. Be that the case, I think that's the position of the federal government of Nigeria and they are the main actors in this respect. I don't think I have anything counter to see in respect of that. If any governor want to address the issue of this? Anybody? Otherwise we can go to the next question. Well, we can move on to another question from Twitter. It's actually, I think it's an organization called Land Mines in Africa. And this is a question that the organization is asking, what is being done to clear the land mines and IEDs left by Boko Haram? Are there any organizations out there that are helping you? So this has to do with land mines. Anybody? Well, with regards to the land mines, I think the Nigerian Army is making a lot of efforts towards addressing those challenges. But we have a Bulgaria general in the Nigerian Army who is in a better position to share more light. But I believe they are addressing the issue frontally. Someone else wants to say something? Go ahead. We have a military officer. Bulgaria, although we had thought we were going to limit this to the government, but this is a necessity for some military intervention, I guess. Go ahead. So please. I am Brigadier General Saleh Bala. I'm a retired officer, recently retired just five years ago. And I work as an advisor to the Minister of Interior. I would just speak from a global context, understanding the operations that my colleagues are up to in the Northeast over the past seven, eight years so to speak. We get regular and daily reports on the diffusing and the lifting of mines which Boko Haram have laid all over Sambisa Forest. So there is that massive Nigeria military effort that is going on. But we all know that in post-conflict peace building, it's also a very, very important massive international effort to support in the lifting of the mines, but especially with the peculiarity of the mines that are IEDs. Are there any specific organizations out there that are helping you deal with the issue? Not to my knowledge for now, but I know it is basically an indigenous Nigerian military effort in clearing those mines and making the mobility corridors safe for the withdrawing victims after the liberation of their various locations. That's for so much that I can speak. And I know the Nigeria Army engineers are well-primed. Indeed, with a lot of support from the U.S. government with the substantial donation of anti-mine vehicles, the MRAPs that we have seen, the other alternative to the Lehi Law, where the U.S. is supporting us in non-lethal equipment. So there has been quite some effort towards that. Do you want to take a short at this other question we asked earlier about the swiping of Boko Haram elements for the release of the girls? It's quite above my bakery. Okay, let me move on quickly. In this speech published by Daily Trust that Governor Kashif Shatimo wrote, why ten northern governors are in Washington, he identified poverty as what he calls the mother of them all in terms of the problems that bring about problems, issues like the Boko Haram. I want to ask a specific question. And please, I know you all have been dealing with this issue of poverty in all your states, but I need to ask, and to hear from anybody, what specific majors are you taking to curb poverty in your states? Anybody can take this question. This is an issue that has been identified for a very long time at the root cause of some of the social ills in Nigeria. Well, I can largely speak on behalf of most of us. Yes, sir. As I said earlier, we are forced to change the pace of northern Nigeria, and all of us are making massive investments in agriculture. Nigeria is a net importer of virtually everything. We are importing 20 million eggs from South Africa every day. We import toothpicks from Canada, carriages from the United States, packaged in Dubai and delivered to Nigeria. So opportunities are bound, and we are massively taking advantage of our land resources and our agricultural potential to add value to our society by creating jobs in the agricultural sector. All of us here are very serious about investments in agriculture. And believe me, in the coming months and years, we'll start reaping bountiful habits from our apples. KB state is adding about 1.4 million tons of rice to our kitty this year. So also are so many other states of the federation that are actively engaging in agricultural production, and it will create a big sum of opportunities for our people. Thank you. The senator governor wants to talk about any measure they might be taking locally in their own states. Yes, sir. Well, thank you very much. I would like to add my voice to this all-important topic and say that in so called a state, outside the efforts being made by the government to subsidize heavily on agriculture, we are also having a well-established committee, which will soon be a commission for Zakat and Wakaaf. Zakat, of course, we all know is one of the five pillars of Islam for the collation of arms that should be well distributed to the needy, as as prescribed by the Holy Quran. And Wakaaf, of course, is talking about foundation. And we are collaborating with international Wakaaf foundations globally for us to get some support for the needy in so called a state. But by the way, we have any identified vulnerable person in so called a state is placed on a steep end of 7500 Naira per month. And that has been sustained and been ongoing for nearly six years now. And of course, we are doing a lot in terms of providing trainings and vocational trainings to our youth, to the vulnerable groups that can participate in empowering them. And a lot has been done on, of course, women empowerment, the youth empowerment in various states in the north. I believe not only giving them what they need for their daily subsistence is necessary, but what is also more important is giving them the desired education, the desired skill for them to earn a living by themselves. And that much is receiving good attention from virtually all the states in the north. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Governor. We'll move on. And this is actually a very, very simple question from Ugo Moses on Facebook. And he's asking the question, why are only the northern governors invited? That might be a question for USIP, but I'm going to let you answer before you do that. I would also, I think Ambassador Carson addressed this earlier about you being here, meeting with Secretary Rice, meeting with Secretary Kerry. So we would like to hear, if for nothing, what has come out of those meetings, for example. So also address why are only the northern governors invited? Well, there is a greater understanding of the challenges that is confronting the northern part of this country that came out of this meeting. The most important thing is that we are one nation with a common destiny, but let it be borne in mind that if you pick northern Nigeria, you are picked Nigeria. And the challenges confronting the nation are more onerous, more challenging in the north than in the south. And let it be made very clear that this is not the first time we are coming to Washington to discuss challenges facing northern Nigeria. From the USIP, this is the second time, right? This is the second time. Yes. The first time was when President Goodluck, Eberle Jarnasson was at the helm of appears in Nigeria. It had nothing to do with the fact that in Osana, it's at the helm of appears in Nigeria. It has everything to do with the challenges we are facing in Nigeria. Thank you. Just want to say something very quickly also. I know we're here asking all the tough questions here just to remind people who are watching and people who have never heard about Nigeria who are just tuning in that there are also a lot of good things that are happening in Nigeria. And I think in the past two, three years, we've seen the country elect a new president in very peaceful elections. We've also seen Nigeria become the largest economy, biggest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, which was a first to basically taking out, taking the place of South Africa. I guess hopefully they fell out a little bit and they will come back again. So there are a lot of positive things that are happening in the country. And thanks for being here once again for the governors to discuss challenges and that are part of life. And it's always, it cannot be perfect, but we're glad that you're working towards that goal. I'll turn to Aleph. Thank you, Mariam. We have about 10 minutes before we wrap up, but there's a question from Geozi there, Twitter, who says beyond military fighting, what other majors are being put in place to reduce radicalization? Radicalization, which we know is a big problem. Anybody? Professor Hafiz, you want to take that? Well, thank you. I think part of the discussions since we came here has been the issue of way forward. And I think there is agreement in terms of privatization that education comes first. When you say education actually is all-encompassing that we need to invest, that will include the issue of infrastructure, it will include the issue of the teachers in terms of capacity and development, but most of the other big component is the issue of the curriculum itself. And I think part of the deregalization process would be a critical look at the actually curriculum of both formal and informal Islamic education. So it's all part of the issue of investment in that. And then following that one, certainly, is the issue of the job creation component. So in that one, I think we will achieve a lot in addition to other majors. Thank you. Thank you, Excellency. Yes, please. Brigadier General Saleh Balagian, Federal Minister of Interior, I would like to refer us to the soft approach to counterterrorism policy, which was enunciated and housed in the Office of the National Security Advisor. And the newly launched Nigeria counterterrorism policy also addresses the issues of radicalization and as such. So there is a clear structure and there are clear efforts. In fact, the Nigerian Army has an operation in itself called the Operation Save Corridor, if I'm correct, where they have collected a group of surrendered Boko Haram fighters and they are going through a process supported by international partners. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to address my next question to Governor Kashim Shatima, because in your speech, you did mention the possibility that as we all know, there's going to be an election in this country very soon. And you did express some concern that the outcome of the election, which we do not know as of now, may impact your discussion with USIP and the implementation of some of the goals that you set for yourselves. How prepared are you to deal with whatever the outcome is? Well, I made those remarks jokingly, but it is incontestable that nobody can change his geography. No select your neighbor. And as I earlier said, America has very strong institutions, whichever way the pendulum swings. We believe the institutions in America will make it possible for us to have a sustained relationship with the United States government. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So very quickly, since you're in Washington, obviously you've been here. You watched a debate last night. I'm sure you've been following the campaign very closely. We're just curious to know what do you make of, as Africans visiting here, does anybody, I mean, not being political, just what do you think about it? Do you watch them? What are your thoughts? Just follow up on that question. Anyway, the worst cause that a Chinese may wish for you is for you to live in interesting times. And you guys are living in very interesting times. That's the only thing I can say. Interesting times, meaning. Okay, we wish you well. They say we have to wrap up. Okay, we're wrapping up. Okay, all gets over there. Okay, we're wrapping up right now, meaning we're done. Yes. We're done. No more questions. Anyways, I think there was something about possibility of amnesty, maybe for some of the horror fights. But we'll move on. I want to thank everybody. Marayama Diallo from VOA. Thanks for joining us today. And we want to thank especially the governors. And of course, the interest of officials that came with them for their presence here and their participation of the governors. And we assure that Nigeria and the United States will be the benefactors eventually. Thank you very much. And we appreciate you. And the conversation continues on social media. So join in.