Managing director of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, said the commission is working closely with the University of Maiduguri and other stakeholders to establish a museum on Boko Haram insurgency in the region.
Alkali, who disclosed this yesterday during the commemoration of 2023 International Day of Peace in Maiduguri, said the museum is designed to put the narrative of Boko Haram insurgency in a positive perspective for social change.
He said, “We are discussing with the university and other stakeholders to see how the museum would be established to preserve the relics and literature to tell the stories for the next coming generation”.
Alkali added that the museum would allow the stakeholders to give the narratives positively for upcoming generations to understand the consequences of war in the region and the country at large.
He said the commission is open to giving any support within its mandate to defeat violent extremism in the region.
“I also saw some artefacts being displaced, and I quickly asked Ambassador Ahmed Shehu what they were all about. He told me that it was an innovative idea for some of our youths. We are going to look at it, anyone that is worthy to be developed, we will support the project,” he said.
Earlier, the president of the Peace Ambassadors Centre for Humanitarian Aid and Empowerment, Ahmed Shehu, said the innovations were made by little children who have not attended school.
“Our hunt for talent this time had discovered innovations by three children that had never attended the four walls of the classroom. They did wonderful things.
“A few years back, one of such talents created a solar-powered machine, and today his company is competing favourably in the manufacturing industry in Nigeria,” he said.
He commended the NEDC for offering timely support to the young talent and conferred the Peace Ambassador award to the managing director of the commission, Ahmed Goni Alkali.
In his remarks, a religious leader, Shettima Jafar Imam, urged the government and NEDC to relocate the repentant terrorists camped at the Hajj camp in Maiduguri to the outskirts of the town, especially the Konduga area where the museum is located.
He noted that the Hajj camp which is a ground for preparation of pilgrimage is not suitable to camp the ex-combatants, adding that keeping them in such a place is not good for peace in the state.
Alkali bagged the award of Peace Ambassador 2023 during the event.