Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development (AFPD), a Borno-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has urged Governor Babagana Umara Zulum to scale up palliative measures being distributed in the state to include vulnerable female headships.
The Executive Director of the AFPD, Hamsatu Allamin, made the call in Maiduguri on Monday while delivering her speech titled “Strengthening Capabilities and Will for Traditional Justice and Reconciliation in Borno State.
She noted that giving N5,000 and a wrapper to each mother-headed family being distributed as palliatives by Governor Zulum is not enough to sustain the family, taking into consideration the current economic hardship.
According to her, the current economic hardship coupled with the negative effects of insurgency have unduly subjected vulnerable female heads to so many challenges in Borno State.
She lamented that it was no longer news that the prices of transportation, food items, goods, and services have been increasing every day.
“Mother – head families are suffering in Borno. They told the government that they don’t need food items; the female headships need food items to feed their families just like men.”.
She urged Governor Babagana Zulum to make some considerations in regards to scaling up palliatives, especially food items, for the inclusion of women as house heads.
She requested that the media and journalists show more interest in reporting the situation of vulnerable women in Borno, adding that the level of hunger in the state has become deeply troubling while the hardships have become unbearable for female headships.
She also called for strategic, concerted action by the government and other non-governmental organisations to tackle the increasing menace of gender-based violence against the most vulnerable members of society, particularly in the Boko Haram-liberated areas of Borno State.
