By Cross Udo, Abuja
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) yesterday said some of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the northeast are unwilling to return to their ancestral homes.
The Commission also said that the Federal Government would require a total sum of N31 trillion (about $80bn) to fund the North East Stabilization and Development Master Plan 2020-2030.
Speaking when he featured at the Ministerial briefing, organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the State House, Abuja, the NEDC Executive Director, Humanitarian Affairs, Musa Yashi, said the IDPs have so integrated with the host communities that they saw no need to return to their original settlements.
Fielding questions on the challenges of resettling IDPs back to their home communities torn apart by the Boko Haram insurgency, Yashi noted that 20 to 30 per cent of displaced persons do not live in camps.
The demography, he said, has thrived in communities outside their homelands which has made them reticence to return.
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.
On the N33trn required as the North East Stabilization and Development Master Plan 2020-2030, the Managing Director of the Commission Mohammed Goni Alkali said the 10-year master plan would address humanitarian challenges facing the crisis-ridden region comprising the six states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.
According to him, the Commission hoped to raise 20 per cent of the estimated fund through budgetary allocations while the balance would be sourced from the private sectors, development partners, and donor agencies.
The NEDC boss also lamented the dearth of teachers in the region disclosing that about 40 percent of teachers there have either been killed in the insurgency or displaced over time.
Alkali said the Federal Government has concluded the construction of 1,000 housing units as part of its resettlement efforts for millions of inhabitants displaced by the 13-year insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East.
According to him, the 1000 houses were built in Ngwom, Borno, with plans to build 500 housing units in five other affected states each, costing N17.5bn.
The mass housing project includes two-bedroom flats built in clusters. The housing units have been handed over to the Borno State Government which distributed it to various households.
The Managing Director said the NEDC has executed 647 projects ranging from agriculture, health, education, and energy/power across 112 local government areas in the North-East.
With each LGA gulping at least N50m, the total costs accrue to N5.6bn.
He noted that three bridges have been constructed in Kudzum, Dilechim, and Wuro-Ngayandi areas of Adamawa State.
He argued that the lack of a sturdy education system in the North-East has fuelled the insurgency.
The managing director explained that the management created an Education Endowment Fund with a seed capital of N6bn, with plans to dedicate 10 per cent of its annual allocation to the fund.
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 stabilisation masterplan.
*Graft in NDDC won’t happen in N’ East commission, MD vows
Meanwhile, the NEDC yesterday vowed to resist any form of graft that allegedly characterized the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The NEDC Managing Director, Mohammed Goni Alkali, who stated this when he was featured at the weekly Ministerial briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team, also said that water-tight measures have been put in place to insulate the activities of the new regional commission in the north.
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There have been allegations in 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 its board whose members were appointed and sent to the senate by him and were screened but yet to be inaugurated almost two years ago.
Fielding to a question from State House correspondents on measures put in place to shield the NEDC from corruption, the Managing Director said the commission was created for a purpose and would ensure judicious utilisation of resources at its disposal and to actualise its mandate for the people.
According to him, “You see, these things have to do with institutional issues, individual issues, and so forth. But, in our case, we know that we are created for a purpose, and at the end of the day, we believe that posterity will judge us by 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. We as a team now, want to ensure that whatever is given to us is being protected for their benefit.”
