- Bulama said in Dutse that the state government wants to use the museum to archive all about the insurgent movement
- The state government is also considering making the one-time stronghold of the insurgents Sambisa into a tourist site
- Bulama also reminded that Borno governor Shettima has declared December 22 of every year as a public holiday in the state in celebration of the capture of Sambisa
The Borno state government has said it will convert the house of former leader of the Boko Haram sect Mohammed Yusuf to a museum.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture Dr Mohammed Bulama disclosed this on the sidelines of the 9th National Council for Culture, Tourism and National Orientation held in Dutse, Jigawa state capital.
The Council with the theme “Tourism and Culture as Panacea for Nigeria’s Economic Recovery’’ was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Bulama told NAN in an interview that the museum would help to archive all things related to Boko Haram insurgency to attract tourists and for the benefits of future generation.
“We are going to convert the house of the leader of the Boko Haram sect Mohammed Yusuf where the insurgency all started from, to a museum.
“The place is called Maarcas; we want to build a museum there where all the things that had happened relating to the insurgency will be archived.
“We want to document and archive all that had happened so that our future generation will be able to have first-hand information,” he said.
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NAN reports that Yusuf, sect leader and founder of the militant Islamist group, Boko Haram was killed in 2009 and his group has continued to constitute serious security threat to Borno and other states in the northeast.
The Commissioner said Borno was also planning to turn the Sambisa forest, which used to be the insurgents’ haven, to a tourist centre by reviving the already existing games reserve in the forest.
“Last year, Gov. Kashim Shettima made a pronouncement to the effect that every Dec. 22, will be declared a public holiday in Borno because that is the day the military declared that they had captured Ground Zero in Sambisa forest.
“What we intend to do when stability is fully achieved is to convert the forest into a tourist attraction in order to show the world what has happened.
“Before insurgency, we used to have a game reserve in the Sambisa forest, we are going to revive that,” he said.
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According to Bulama, Borno is very rich in culture and diversity; and the government would use the security situation in the State for tourism advantage.
Bulama said that the meeting in Dutse witnessed very robust contributions in form of memorandum presentations and intervention by participants and other stakeholders in the culture and tourism sectors.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had earlier reported that a civil society organisation on Thursday, November 23, commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the chief of army staff over the successes recorded against the Boko Haram terrorist group.
The organisation, Eko Civil Rights Movement said, it acknowledges the giant strides that have been taken by the Nigerian military in defeating Boko Haram.
Speaking in Lagos during a rally to mark the 2017 Global Terrorism Index commissioned by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the executive director of ECRM, Olusayo Olaotun, said the recent positive rating is an appraisal of the counter insurgency efforts that has returned a positive verdict.
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Source: Naija.ng