Borno to Turn Home of Boko Haram Founder to Museum, Sambisa Forest to Tourist Centre

Borno to Turn Home of Boko Haram Founder to Museum, Sambisa Forest to Tourist Centre

The Borno State Government says it will convert the house of the former leader of Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf, to a museum.

The state Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture, Mohammed Bulama, disclosed this at the sidelines of the 9th National Council for Culture, Tourism and National Orientation held in Dutse, Jigawa.

The council, with the theme “Tourism and Culture as Panacea for Nigeria’s Economic Recovery,’’ was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

Bulama, in an interview, said that the museum would help to archive all things related to Boko Haram insurgency to attract tourists and for the benefit of future generation.

“We are going to convert the house of the leader of the Boko Haram sect Mohammed Yusuf where the insurgency all started from, to a museum.

“The place is called Maarcas; we want to build a museum there where all the things that had happened relating to the insurgency will be archived.

“We want to document and archive all that had happened so that our future generation will be able to have first hand information,” he said.

Yusuf, sect leader and founder of the militant Islamist group, Boko Haram was killed in 2009 and his group has continued to constitute serious security threat to Borno and other states in the North-east.

The Commissioner said the State was also planning to turn the Sambisa forest, which used to be the insurgents’ haven, to a tourist centre by reviving the already existing games reserve in the forest.

“Last year, Governor Kashim Shettima made a pronouncement to the effect that every December 22, will be declared a public holiday in Borno because that is the day the military declared that they had captured Ground Zero in Sambisa forest.

“What we intend to do when stability is fully achieved is to convert the forest into a tourist attraction in order to show the world what has happened.

“Before insurgency, we used to have a game reserve in the Sambisa forest, we are going to revive that,” he said.