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Says, some IDPs reluctant to return home as1,000 housing units completed at N17.5bn
By Egena Sunday Ode
A whopping N31.05 trillion would be required to rebuild the Northeast of Nigeria ravaged by the nefarious activities of Boko Haram.
Managing Director of Northeast Development Commission, NEDC, Mohammed Goni Alkali, who revealed this on Thursday said the execution of the Northeast stabilization and development master plan would take 10 years.
Alkali spoke to newsmen when he appeared during the weekly Ministerial briefing anchored by the Presidential Media Team in the State House, Abuja.
The NEDC was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 to coordinate all humanitarian interventions by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies based on the Northeast stabilization master plan.
According to the NEDC boss, the bulk of the money-about 80 percent-would come from other sources aside from government.
Alkali, explained that the commission has created an Education Endowment Fund with a seed capital of N6bn; and plans to dedicate 10 per cent of its annual allocation to it.
Alkali vowed to resist graft issues that have allegedly characterised the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), saying that water tight measures had been put in place to insulate the new regional commission.
Allegations of graft had characterised the operations of the NDDC which has continued to remain without a board owing to alleged political influence, making it difficult for President Muhammadu Buhari to order the inauguration of a board whose members were appointed and sent to the senate by him and were screened but yet to be inaugurated almost two years ago.
But reacting to a question on what measures have been put in place to shield the NEDC from corruption, Alkali said the commission was created for a purpose and would ensure judicious utilisation of resources at its disposal and to actualize it’s mandate for the people.
According to him, “this things have to do with institutional issues, individual issues, and so on and so forth. But, in our own case we know that we are created for a purpose, and at the end of the day we believe that posterity will judge us with what we have done with the mandate given to us.
“That is why we are very careful and very prudent in seeing that we propose and execute what we can do with the …. available. Sometimes, yes, there could be political pressure, but always in the commission we are bent on following laid down procedures and see that we are guided by what is feasible and what is prudentially possible to achieve. And this is our commitment to the people of the northeast.”
Continuing, the MD vowed to ensure that the commission in the North East under his leadership works hard to protect the resources meant to facilitate the development of the area.
“We as a team now, we want to ensure that whatever is given to us is being protected for their benefit,” he added.
Briefing on sundry other issues, Alkali lamented the reluctance of some of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the northeast to return to their ancestral homes.
Fielding questions on behalf of the MD, the agency’s Executive Director, Humanitarian Affairs, Musa Yashi, revealed that in the communities torn apart by the Boko Haram insurgency, 20 to 30 per cent of the displaced persons do not live in camps.
He said that the IDPs have so integrated with their host communities that they now see no rationale to return to their original settlements, especially as their homes have been destroyed and will take years to rebuild.
Citing the dismal condition of towns across Monguno, he argued that resettlement would require the reconstruction of whole communities; a task so daunting that the NEDC does not have enough funds to undertake at this time.
Alkali, while speaking, said the Federal Government has concluded the construction of 1,000 housing units as part of the resettlement efforts for millions of the inhabitants displaced by the 13-year insurgency in Nigeria’s Northeast.
According to him, the 1000 houses were built in Ngwom, Borno, at the cost of N17.5 billion, saying the mass housing project includes two-bedroom flats built in clusters. The housing units have been handed over to the Borno State Government for distribution.
Continuing, he revealed plans to build 500 housing units in five other affected states.
Alkali also revealed that the NEDC has executed 647 projects ranging from agriculture, health, education, energy/power across 112 local government areas in the northeast, with each Local Government Area (LGA) gulping at least N50 million, accruing to N5.6 billion.
