Insurgency: Humanitarian ministry applauds NEDC for executing ‘laudable’ projects
By Collins Mbakwe
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Social Development and Disaster Management have applauded the efforts of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) for undertaking over 500 projects and programmes in one and half years.
Sadiq – Garba Shehu, the representative of the Minister, made the commendation during a briefing with senior media executives Monday afternoon in Maiduguri.
North-east, consisting of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states, has battled with an Islamist insurgency that has resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people.
The region is home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people displaced due to the 13-year-old conflict.
The Commission was inaugurated in 2019 to help coordinate resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of infrastructure for victims, among other things.
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“At the ministry, we have a monitoring and evaluation department and we follow closely what agencies under the ministry are doing. Looking at the NEDC we’re looking at 583 intervention projects across the six states of the North East. 583 projects and programmes in a space of about one and a half years, I can tell you the ministry is very proud of what the NEDC has achieved,” Mr Shehu.
He said the ministry and the Commission do not discriminate in the siting of the projects, as the Minister has commissioned NEDC projects in all six states in the region.
While presenting the Commission’s scorecard, the Managing Director of the NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said the Commission has “been implementing noteworthy humanitarian – development – peacebuilding nexus projects as provided in the Buhari Plan of 2016….”
He said the Commission would soon release its North East Stabilisation Development Master Plan, which will be implemented at the cost of N31.5 trillion.
“The Commission has built 1,000 housing units in Ngowon Borno state at the cost of N2.92 billion and 500 housing units in each of the five other states at the total cost of N17.5 billion Naira. In addition, we’ve also provided Rapid Response Intervention projects in the 112 local government areas of the region at the cost of N6 billion Naira.
“We’re constructing 18 mega schools one in each Senatorial district in the six States. We’ve provided 120 vehicles and hospital equipment to security agencies. We’ve provided 42 ambulances to some states and federal hospitals. We’ve trained youths on climate change adaptation, ICT, waste to wealth management and lots more,” Mr Alkali said.
He said the Commission was also into free fistula repairs, psychosocial support services, peacebuilding initiatives, and free viral Hepatitis vaccination for over 5000 patients.
The media executives visited some of the projects, including a Centre for Violent and Extremism, Burns Centre at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (another one was also built in Adamawa), auditoriums, lecture halls in both Borno State University and the University of Maiduguri, rebuilt bridges, newly constructed roads among other projects.
