FG okays rebuilding of Chibok girls’ school

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday said the Federal Government would soon begin the reconstruction of Government Secondary School ,Chibok , Borno State.

The finance minister stated this on Thursday when she led a government delegation to visit Internally Displaced Persons from Chibok settled in Buzunkure, Kuje area council of the Federal Capital Territory.

The school came into limelight when over 213 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram about nine months ago.

While stating that the purpose of the visit was to support and encourage them, she noted that already, President Goodluck Jonathan had approved the reconstruction of the school.

This, according to her, would be achieved under the Safe School Initiative.

She said, “She said that the major focus of the Federal Government was to ensure that Boko Haram was removed so that people could move back to their communities.

“Displacement is not a permanent condition; the idea is for you people to be able to go back and not to build you camps in different places.

“The second thing is about the school, Government Secondary School, Chibok, about two days ago, we had a conversation for a long time; we have been waiting for the right circumstances.

“That school, the President (Goodluck Jonathan) is determined and he promised publicly that he will have the school rebuilt, the plans are ready; they are working with engineers.

“In no few distance, we will be able to start work in that school, he has already approved that.”

Okonjo-Iweala added that 44 students among the IDPs would be added to about 2,400 other students that would be transferred from schools in the north-eastern states to various unity schools in other parts of the country.

This, she said, was being done with funding from donors including Britain, United States of America, Norway, World Bank,and the African Development Bank under the safe school initiative programme.

She said, “We will add the names to the list but we will come back to you to do it in orderly fashion to make sure that we are reflecting what the parents and children want.

“If they want to be placed in schools close to here, we will do it, if they want to be in secondary schools, elsewhere, we will do that, it is a voluntary thing and we will try to meet up with their demands.”

Earlier, the Coordinator of the IDPs, Mr. Gapani Yanga, had said that one of the major problems of the people was how to ensure that the pupils were back to school.