Trump to unveil a five year development plan for northeast Nigeria under US anti-Boko Haram programme

PRESIDENT Donald Trump plans to unveil a five-year development plan for northeast Nigeria soon as part of a comprehensive Lake Chad Basin strategy to rebuild the area in response to the Boko Haram crisis.

Last December, President Barack Obama unveiled a development and currently, there is law in existence mandating the US government to build on it.  Last month, Senator Susan Collins and Congresswoman Wilson led a bipartisan group of 50 members of Congress meet the US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, the secretary of defence James Mattis and the director of the National Intelligence Daniel Coats, requesting an update on their efforts to counter Boko Haram

In December 2016, legislation introduced by Hon Collins and Senator Wilson was signed into law requiring that the US government develop a comprehensive plan to help the Nigerian government and its partners combat Boko Haram and address the legitimate concerns of affected, vulnerable populations. Their bill, which responded to the terrorist organisation’s kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria in 2014, directs the secretary of state, the secretary of defence and the director of National Intelligence to submit to Congress a five-year anti-Boko Haram strategy by June 12, 2017.

“While we were encouraged by the release of 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls, it is imperative that we remember that many of the girls remain in captivity along with untold hundreds of other women, men, and children who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram. We look forward to receiving an update on your efforts to develop an anti-Boko Haram strategy and beginning the process of dismantling Boko Haram and reuniting all of the Chibok schoolgirls with their families," Senator Collins and Hon Wilson wrote to the Trump administration.