Speaking with HuffPostLive at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Bassim Haidar, the founder, chairman and CEO of Nigeria-based telecoms and logistics group Channel IT discussed the violent campaign of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Ruthless attacks by fighters of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram have plunged northeast Nigeria in absolute chaos. More than 10,000 people were killed in violence connected to the extremists in the past year and at least a million people have been displaced by the insurgency. The United Nations Security Council warned on Tuesday that escalating Boko Haram attacks may amount to crimes against humanity and could destabilize the whole region.
In his conversation with HuffPostLive’s Roy Sekoff, Haidar pointed out that Boko Haram’s terror is affecting different parts of Nigeria dissimilarly. Haider explained that Boko Haram mostly operates in the country’s northeast, a remote and rural area. “If you look at a country like Nigeria, where today you have 160 million people, maybe five million people are affected in that region,” Haidar said about the areas suffering the most from Boko Haram violence.
When asked whether he thinks private enterprise can play a role in fighting terrorism in Nigeria, Haidar said he believes it’s necessary to examine what’s causing the violence and what motivates the extremists.
Read more updates from the World Economic Forum in Davos below.
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“It took us 13 years to get lead out of gasoline because of our children’s brains. When are we going to get the carbon out of the atmosphere? It’s a toxin… It’s obvious to anybody with half a whit.”
“This is a fundamental issue of human rights and of intelligence for the future,” he added.
McDonough spoke about creating biodegradable packaging made from corn stalks.
“Why wouldn’t corn flakes be in a package made from corn stalks?” McDonough said.
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“We think it’s about a ,000 a year savings,” Bertolini said, noting his company’s health care costs actually went down after implementing mindfulness practices.
Mark Bertolini said a number of CEOs at Davos have asked him how he made the major changes at his company.
“Not everybody should be at an hour, there may be people who need to be higher,” Bertolini said, noting people’s lifestyles are directly impacted by how they are paid.
Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, explained how he increased wages for his workers, arguing that taking better care of his employees would in turn lead to better care for Aetna’s customers.
“We started to say, well, that’s going to take away some of their benefits… so we also made a benefits change,” Bertolini said.
“I think it is useful and important for people to imagine, ‘where’s my food coming from?'” Mack said.
“What people don’t appreciate is just how intensive agriculture is around the world,” Mack added.
“Transparency.. is getting pretty tightly wound together with labeling,” Mack said.
Mack said people in the U.S. have “failed to appreciate” that labeling was always done for the purposes of safety, and argued that GMO labeling isn’t typically done because GMOs aren’t deemed unsafe.
Michael Mack, CEO of Syngenta, said some of the debate over food technologies like GMOs is “Western luxury.”
