Aisha, President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, has said she travelled the United States of America to solicit support of aid organizations on how to help the women and children facing starvation in the north eastern part of Nigeria.
Aisha who has been on a week-long visit to the United States said that her action was based on the fact that the government could not do it all alone.
Speaking in an interview with the Hausa service of the Voice of America, she said, “Our children in the various camps are in dire situation and the government alone cannot do it, we have to get help.”
The president’s wife said she had already met with organisations known for promoting peace and provision of aids to displaced children, including the officials of the United States Institute for peace.
According to her, during the meeting with the USIP on Friday she assured them that unlike what obtained in the past, any aid rendered to displaced persons would go to those who needed them.
She also said she told the officials that what was needed now was not even cash because statistics had shown that children between the ages of five months and seven years were dying in large number due to hunger-related diseases.
She said the United Nations International Children Fund had been providing aid packages containing nut-related supplements, which, she said, are produced in large quantities by Nigerian farmers.
Mrs. Buhari said she told the officials that there was need to set up a plant in Nigeria that could produce the package.
“It often takes between 6-8 weeks for these things to be shipped to Nigeria, before they arrive, many children would have died, so I suggested to them to set up the manufacturing plant in the country if they really want to help is,” she said.
Mrs. Buhari said she started pay close attention to the issue after recent revelations indicated women and children were dying of hunger in some IDP camps in Borno State.
