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| Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai |
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieut- Gen. Tukur Buratai has told a group of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to forget whatever they might have passed through in the hands of the Boko Haram terrorist group and look forward to the future.
Gen. Buratai spoke in Abuja while donating relief materials to the Hajia Aisha Buhari Special School for IDPs and Vulnerable Children. The school, run by the Praxis Catholic e-School, is taking care of 300 IDP children and youths, drawn from 14 camps in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Nasarawa state.
The children, who hail from Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, were awarded scholarships to cover boarding, medication, feeding, tuition, books and skill acquisition for three years. The scholarship scheme is designed to assist children who have lost their parents to the Boko Haram insurgency and are out of school to acquire education.
The COAS, who was represented by the Chief of Civil Military Relations, Maj-Gen. Peter Bojie told the students to put all their trust in the Almighty God for inspiration and success.
โI therefore want to encourage you to dedicate yourselves in your studies and forget what has happened in the past as all hope is not lost for you.
โYou have to look up to the almighty God as your source of inspiration. The military will continue to safeguard lives and properties in the towns and cities that were ravaged by the Boko Haram Terrorists to bring a lasting peace for educational and other socio-cultural activities to strive for the development of Nigeria. That also goes for those who are still stranded and yet to be rescued,โ he said.
The head teacher of the school, Ben Onwudinjo, said the wife of the President adopted the school because its mission and vision were in tandem with her pet project, Future Assured Programme.
He said the children were taught skills to make them self-reliant upon graduation. The school is still expecting the second batch of 150 girls.
