NEDC

COVID-19 pandemic, the NEDC visited the Maiduguri water treatment plant for possible intervention.

developer — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 12:16:30 +0000

As the demand for improved access to water is increasing amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, the NEDC visited the Maiduguri water treatment plant for possible intervention.

NEDC conducts an assessment of an isolation Center in Borno seeking areas of intervention

developer — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 12:00:21 +0000

NEDC conducts an assessment of an isolation Center in Borno seeking areas of intervention

NEDC Donates COVID-19 Medical, Preventive Items To Northeast

developer — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 13:55:01 +0000

As part of measures to curtail the spread of the deadly COVID-19, the North East Development Commission (NEDC), has donated medical equipment and preventive items to the six states in the Northeast geo-political zone in the country.

The items donated to the six-state governments include Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), ventilators, surgical masks, ordinary masks, infra-red thermometer, hand gloves, and hand sanitizers.

Leaving Yesterday in hope of Tomorrow

developer — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 09:56:53 +0000

The story of Maryam Sani, who survived Boko Haram captivity.

The circumstances surrounding the abduction, life in captivity and subsequent rescue of Maryam Sani, lends credence to the idea that life-altering trauma can be a doorway to something more; that adversity holds possibilities for manifesting resilience and post-traumatic growth.

Maryam, 26, a Form Two student was abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents while on her way from Lafia in Nassarawa State to Bama in Borno state for a naming ceremony in November 2017. She fell prey to the insurgents when the commercial vehicle conveying her and other travelers to Bama broke down in the Bush. While Maryam was recounting her ordeal, it was obvious that was still shaken by her experience. Yet there was also a clear willingness to tell her story as though she recognized that disclosing the details of an event that still haunts her is essential to her healing. She managed to say, “When the car broke down, other people managed to leave the area by boarding other vehicles and while I was waiting for the next vehicle to come, the boys appeared from the bush nearby and took me away after burning the broken down vehicle.”

What followed was seven months of captivity in the infamous Sambisa Forest during which Maryam was subjected to serial sexual abuse and multiple rapes by her abductors. Once a thriving game reserve in the 1970s, Sambisa Forest, a sixty thousand square kilometer expanse that lies 60 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, fell into neglect, became a haunt for criminal elements and eventually the base of the insurgency. It achieved global infamy when it was identified as the place where the insurgents were holding the 274 schoolgirls abducted in March 2014 from Chibok hostage. In December 2016, the Nigerian army swept into the forest, dislodged the insurgents and seized control of their base camp.

Maryam described life in captivity as “hell on earth.” “What pains me most,” she said, “is the sexual assaults that made me conceive this baby whose real father (among them) I still don’t know”. Her odyssey is typical in a region in which armed conflict has also spawned epidemic levels of gender-based violence. Since the onset of the insurgency, thousands of women and girls have been kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. About 30 percent of women in the northeast have reported experiencing gender-based violence since 2013. Women and girls are targeted for abduction by Boko Haram and face rape, forced labour, marriage or religious conversion, abuse, exposure to sexually transmitted infections. When they eventually escape captivity, they are often pregnant, thereby facing the prospect of the prolongment of their trauma because they have been forced into motherhood in very terrifying circumstances. As if these are not enough, these women must often contend with their stigmatization by the community as well as that of their offspring conceived in their tragic forced tryst with terrorists.

Fortunately, there have been concerted efforts by the state governments, community leaders, civil society groups and religious leaders to dispel the public stigmatization of these women and their children. These efforts are slowly and steadily bearing fruit. The various governments in the region recognize the scale of gender-based violence and are tackling it. In collaboration with partners, Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe have opened sexual assault referral centres where victims of sexual violence can get the help they need. In a traditionally conservative society, there is now much greater willingness to discuss issues of sexual assault and violence against women generally. This trend, despite its tragic roots, holds great possibilities for the creation of safe spaces for women and girls in the northeast.

Upon her arrival at the Bama IDP camp, a pale looking Maryam bearing the signs of the physical trauma she had suffered, was identified and supported with NFI kits by the Borno state Multi-sectoral Crisis Recovery Project. She gave birth to a baby girl at the camp clinic shortly after she was rescued by the Nigerian army in June 2018. She is one of hundreds of abducted women that have been liberated by the military.

Shamsudeen Usman Mari (MCRP Borno) with Maryam Sani and her Baby at the Bama IDP Camp during the Interview.

Maryam is grateful to the Nigerian Army for rescuing her and to all those that have assisted her since her arrival at the camp, “I am grateful to you all for giving me another set of clothing materials and utensils,” she said to the MCRP team while cradling her newborn daughter, “I can now change my clothes and I have other items for personal use.” As a beneficiary of the MCRP, she is now under the umbrella of a programme that was designed precisely to enable vulnerable people like her to rebuild their lives.

Maryam’s experience is emblematic in another sense. In a region with one of the lowest rates of female school enrolment in the country, her desire to continue her education is remarkable. She is eager to be reunited with her family back in Lafia “I want to be with my parents and go back to school just to the put the past aside and face realities of life”. Her father, Mallam Sani, who sells wrappers, and mother Hansatu, a full-time housewife, also live in Lafia. Despite her slight frame, Maryam exudes the resilience that many that work in the North East have come to identify with the affected communities. She embodies the triumph of the human spirit and, in particular, the heroic resolve of women in the North East who refuse to let brutal violence they have experienced define the rest of their lives. On the cusp of a new life, and despite the horrors, she has personally endured, it is evident that Maryam is filled with hope for a better tomorrow.

By Bulama Yerima.

Green Shoots of Hope amid the Rubble

developer — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 09:17:21 +0000

One of the beneficiaries of the distribution of ruminants in Borno

The insurgency in the North-East region of Nigeria has raged for over a decade. Its cost has been steep impacting 14 million people with over twenty thousand lives lost, hundreds of devastated communities and 2 million displaced people. The region has captured global attention as the site of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. “The humanitarian consequence [of the insurgency] here is great and one of the worst in the world,” said Toby Lanzer, the UN Assistant Secretary and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel Region during a visit to Borno State in April 2016. The footprint of the crisis spans three states in the region – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe – collectively known as the BAY states.

One of the beneficiaries of the distribution of ruminants in Borno

But amid the rubble and the ruins, there are buoyant green shoots of recovery. In 2016, the Nigerian government unveiled the Buhari Plan, a comprehensive roadmap for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North-East. In 2017, the Nigerian government in partnership with the World Bank and the governments of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, established the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project (MCRP), a five-year intervention funded by the World Bank with a $200 million loan facility. MCRP is designed to address the needs of the estimated 14 million people affected by the conflict, including over 2.3 million Internally Displaced Persons of whom nearly 80 percent are women, children and youth.

In terms of its scale and scope, the MCRP is unprecedented as it cuts across various sectors with four components that tackle issues ranging from peace building, social cohesion, infrastructural rehabilitation, livelihoods and the restoration of service delivery. At the heart of its approach is the recognition that a sustainable peace in the North-East requires restoring the livelihoods of the people, rebuilding the region’s infrastructure and promoting peacebuilding and social cohesion in places where civil authority is only just now being restored.

In September 2018, the project kicked off in Ngwom, a community in Mafa Local Government Area, which lies some 45 kilometers east of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Borno has been the epicenter of the insurgency and has borne the brunt of the resulting humanitarian crisis. Here the project is targeted at over 50,000 victims of insurgency who have recently returned to their homes in nine local government areas of the state.

One of the legions displaced by the conflict is 55-year-old Abubakar Abdullahi who fled his home town in Marte to Bama Local Government area in Borno State. Abubakar was a livestock farmer and fisherman living and working by the shores of Lake Chad, happily married with his wife and three children. But as insurgent activity escalated in the Lake Chad area, disrupting the local fisheries economy and displacing thousands, life there became untenable.

Abubakar Abdullahi during the interview in Bama

Narrating his ordeal, Abubakar revealed that the tragic incident that caused him to flee his home began one Saturday evening when the insurgents attacked their village and destroyed everything. “We escaped the attack by the mercy of God, only to be reconnected with my family by the ICRC barely two years after separation”, he said. Living as an Internally Displaced Person (IDP), he added, “is not only traumatizing but makes you feel unwanted and imprisoned as well”. Through the MCRP programme of transitional support towards stabilization and recovery, about 300 returnees and IDPs have received essential livelihood support. Abubakar’s family received two ewes and a ram as a means of sustenance.

“It is a great means of livelihood which will help me improve my situation and will allow me to provide for my family,” Abubakar said noting that, despite the insurgency and economic difficulties going on around the country, the majority of Nigerians “depend more on agriculture than on petroleum as a means of livelihood.” Abubakar pledged to use the ruminants properly and then use the proceeds to return home where he would exhume the money he had buried in his house and start life afresh. Like many people who fled their homesteads hurriedly when they were attacked by insurgents, Abubakar had left virtually all his possessions and savings behind.

Two ewes and a ram may not seem like much to the outside world, but in the context of the agrarian economy of the region, they are vital resources of empowerment which can resuscitate the livelihoods of those that have been dispossessed by the conflict. Modu Kolo, an expert on ruminants who consults for the World Bank Fadama Project in Borno said, “most of the ruminants distributed are pregnant and by now they must have delivered so depending on the their needs but if they are to sell one now the market price is twenty to twenty five thousand naira which is equivalent to $60 or $70 dollars and the price will be fifty percent more during festive periods depending on the environment and genetic factors.”

Modu Kolo, Expert on Ruminants

One of the goals of the MCRP is to revitalize agriculture to meet the needs of people like Abubakar who are the most affected by the conflict. More broadly the project aims to bridge the gap between humanitarian support and medium-term development. Having recorded an economic loss of more than $9 billion, the North-East requires far more than humanitarian intervention to set it on the path to sustainable recovery.

Abubakar’s current home, Bama, is the second largest town in Borno after Maiduguri and is home to the second highest number of IDPs, returnees and rescued captives after the Borno State capital, underscoring the need for continued support to people and communities in the area. Through the MCRP, 1,500 people including 120 newly rescued women captives and returnees have also received clothing and other essential items. Among the liberated captives are women and young girls that were previously held by the insurgents in the infamous Sambisa Forest. Some of these women rescued by the Nigerian Army revealed that in terms of need, clothing ranks next to food, as most of them spend three to four years wearing the same clothes.

Adamawa

Borno may be the epicentre of the conflict but the consequences of the insurgency spill over into the neighbouring states of Adamawa and Yobe. The challenge posed by the conflict in Adamawa is slightly different. Apart from Madagali, Mubi and Michika and other communities in the northern part of the state which border Borno and which suffered insurgent attacks, Adamawa has had to grapple primarily with the influx of displaced persons from Borno, an influx that has placed tremendous strain on the state’s economy and social services. Much of the MCRP interventions so far in Adamawa have focussed on livelihoods and empowerment.

100 agricultural extension workers with experience in relevant fields have been trained and will subsequently provide technical support to targeted beneficiaries who will be provided with agricultural and non-agricultural kits. This is part of the provision of livelihood support to farming and non-farming households affected by the insurgency in the northern parts of Adamawa State. One of the trainees, Dr. Atiya Geoffrey, expressed delight with the workshop and promised to pass on the experience and knowledge gathered to farmers in the crisis affected areas. “The impact of the knowledge acquired here will in no small measure impact positively on our local famers and we expect that at the end of this year’s farming season, the region will certainly experience a bumper harvest” she said. Her statement reflects the mood of quiet optimism that is blooming in the region.

With the delivery of agricultural and non-agricultural kits, Adamawa is set to commence the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and the delivery of social services and has also initiated the handover of sites for the drilling of boreholes in affected communities.

Some members of the Grievance Redress Committee

The Project Coordinator, MCRP Adamawa PCU Dr. Maurice Vunobolki Addressing Participants at the 5-Day Training of Agricultural Extension Workers in Yola.

Cross Section of Participants at the 5-Day Training of Agricultural Extension Workers in Yola.

Delivery of Agricultural and Non-Agricultural kits

Given the scale of the devastation wrought by the conflict, the extent of the need in vulnerable communities and the vastness of the project, it is inevitable that misgivings may arise regarding the distribution of resources and interventions in the affected areas. To address grievances that may occur during the implementation of the project, a Grievance Redress Mechanism was put in place to register and address complaints and grievances from beneficiaries. Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) were established in affected communities to provide social accountability, inclusion and transparency. Members of the GRCs were drawn from traditional and religious institutions, female leaderships, youth organizations, and local authorities from each community. This has brought confidence, created trust in no small measure and established a firm foundation for the smooth implementation of the project in Adamawa State.

The Yobe MCRP team, the Head of Works, Tarmuwa Local Government Area, Abubakar Helma and Bulama Modu, the Village Head of Limanti at the Limanti borehole.

Administrative difficulties delayed the kick-off of the MCRP in Yobe. The state which is known as the Pride of the Sahel lies to the west of Borno and sustained significant damage to its public infrastructure and disruptions of life and livelihoods in its communities. Since the commencement of MCRP in January 2019, the Yobe State PCU has hit the ground running. It has carried out a state-wide tour of communities across targeted local government areas, engaging in advocacy visits to the most vulnerable beneficiaries, community leaders and key stakeholders to ensure that assistance is successfully delivered. Potential sites have been visited to assess the status of infrastructure projects selected for rehabilitation. As in other states, the goal of the project here is to provide the vulnerable with livelihood opportunities, rehabilitate essential infrastructure and promote peace.

The project team visited borehole project sites in Hausari and Kolori in Gaidam Local government area, Jumbam, Kiska, Koka and Limanti in Tarmuwa local government area, and Lamba Lailai, Jigawa, Tike, Maina Kaina, Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dogon Zare and Dogo Nini in Potiskum local government area. The places visited were found to be in critical need of water supply restoration or improvement, among other key infrastructure and social services. Water security is a major challenge in these parts, said Abubakar Helma, the Head of Works, in Limanti. “The residents here in Limanti travel for more than 10 kilometers to get water for their daily use. Although there is an existing mechanized bore hole, the water yield is very low. You know, rearing of animals is a major means of livelihood here, so there is also a large concentration of livestock and the residents find it difficult to get enough water for themselves and their animals. In addition to this, because of the concentration of security operatives in our neighboring local government areas, more herders troop to Limanti to look for water.” Limanti is a remote settlement in Tarmuwa local government area.

During the MCRP’s visit, the visibly happy residents of Limanti and their village head, Bulama Modu welcomed the team. Modu said that the MCRP is the first project to attend to the community with the purpose of addressing its perennial water problem. In the course of its tour, the team introduced the MCRP to the local government chairs of Gaidam, Tarmuwa and Potiskum with their council members in attendance. It solicited the cooperation of the local government authorities in the identification of beneficiaries for its programme of livelihood support which includes free distribution of livestock, agricultural tools, seeds, fertilizer, and support to women for income generating activities.

The ball is rolling—in Yobe, the MCRP is set to restore thousands of lost livelihoods, strengthen social cohesion, rehabilitate health and school facilities, and rehabilitate and improve critical services and infrastructure like health facilities and boreholes to promote healthcare and restore water supply, among other interventions. The importance of these to the lives and human security of people in North-East Nigeria cannot be overemphasized.

So far, more than 11, 000 people across the BAY states have benefitted from MCRP but it is still early days and there is yet more to come. With the project’s second phase – the rehabilitation of infrastructure and the restoration of social services – now commencing, there is a growing sense that the worst years are now behind the region and that its people have entered firmly into a phase of recovery. In partnership with MCRP, these resilient communities are paving the path to a sustainable future.

Reporting by Bulama Yerima (Maiduguri), Shettima Ilyasu (Yola) and Shuaibu Maidala (Damaturu).

Buhari Inaugurates North East Development Commission

developer — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:24:15 +0000

Welcome North East Development Commission

developer — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:18:34 +0000

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the North East Development Commission [NEDC] Bill 2017, a significant statement to underscore national concern with the devastation suffered by the region due to the Boko Haram insurgency. The bill which became a source of debate as to its merits and demerits was sponsored by Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara [APC, Bauchi] in the House and by Senator Ali Ndume [APC, Borno South] in the Senate.

Senate President Bukola Saraki said the presidential assent to the bill was a major development in efforts by the present administration to restore peace and normalcy in the north-east and making the harrowing experience of the people as a result of insurgency a thing of the past. On his part Dogara said, “I expect the expeditious coming into force of the commission will remedy the long years of underdevelopment suffered by the region.

The recovery and redevelopment of the region is expected to last for decades.” The Act gives the North-East Development Commission the mandate to receive and manage funds allocated by the Federal Government and international donor agencies for the resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of roads, houses and business premises of victims of insurgency.

“The commission will among other things coordinate projects and programmes within the Master Plan for the rehabilitation, resettlement, reconciliation, reconstruction and sustainable development of the North-East Zone in the fields of infrastructure, human and social services including health and nutrition, education and water supply, agriculture, wealth creation and employment opportunities, urban and rural development and poverty alleviation.”

Everyone in Nigeria agrees that the North East region, especially Borno State, has suffered exceptional devastation of the kind that warrants national and international emergency response in order to get the region back on its feet again. It will be recalled that in a previous editorial last year, we opposed establishment of NEDC because we thought it will duplicate the functions of federal, state and local governments and their agencies as well as bring another layer of bureaucracy to efforts to rebuild the region.

Our position was not borne out of lack of empathy for the plight of the region because two years ago, we called for a Marshal Plan of the kind that pulled Europe out of the devastation of World War Two for the North East region. Since the bill to establish the commission has now been signed into law, we have dropped all our objections and we hereby join well wishers in advising it on how to satisfy the aspirations of the people and communities so blighted by Boko Haram.

The most important advice for NEDC is that it should avoid the mistakes, loopholes and scandals that have bedevilled similar well-intentioned intervention agencies. The one that readily comes to mind is Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. This agency was established many years ago to address the region’s devastation due to oil production and transportation, but the general consensus is that it has not made the desired impact in terms of environmental and structural projects and human development in the Niger Delta. Instead it became a cesspool of corruption and a metaphor for waste.

NEDC may not be as awash in money as NDDC, given the latter’s rich source of funds. It is therefore doubly imperative for NEDC to husband the resources it gets and apply them to the best use. We urge the government to put in place stringent measures to checkmate waste and corruption and to promptly deal with anybody found to have tampered with the funds meant for hapless victims of insurgency. No one must be allowed to enrich himself or herself through wasteful projects such as grass cutting or over-invoiced contracts at the expense of the victims of insurgency.

We wish NEDC a successful tenure of emergency intervention and pray that it becomes a national success story.

Buhari Inaugurates board of North East Development Commission

developer — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:13:08 +0000

President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the governing board of the newly established North East Development Commission (NEDC).

The inauguration took place Wednesday, shortly before the commencement of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council.

The new board is chaired by Paul Tarfa, a retired major-general. The event held inside the council chamber of State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Other members of the board are Mohammed Alkali (Managing Director), Musa Yashi, Executive Director Humanitarian Affairs; Muhammed Jawa, Executive Director Administration and Finance and Omar Mohammed, Executive Director Operations.

Others are David Kente, member representing North East Zone; Asmau Mohammed, member representing North West Zone; Benjamin Adanyi, member representing North Central Zone, Olawale Oshun, member representing South West Zone; T. Ekechi member representing South East and Obasuke McDonald, member representing South-South.

Inaugurating the board, Mr Buhari said the establishment of the commission was in fulfilment of the pledge of his administration to fast track the development of the region.

The North-East is badly damaged as a result of the activities of insurgent group Boko Haram.

The president also said the establishment of the commission was in appreciation of the massive electoral support the zone gave him in the 2015 and 2019 general elections.

For the successful take-off of the commission, the president said N10 billion was provided in this year’s budget. He urged the board to judiciously use the fund.

He mandated the board to conduct a comprehensive survey of all the states in the northeast to know the magnitude of the damage caused by the insurgency.

NEDC Inspects IDPs Camps, Assures Prompt Interventions in Borno

developer — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:09:23 +0000

The Managing Director of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Alhaji Mohammed Alkali Kukawa has assured Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Borno state that the commission will soon swing into action to execute all humanitarian plans that will be fashioned out by the management and board of the commission immediately after the ongoing management team inspections and tour of IDPs Camps across the state and north east zone.

He also lamented on the level of devastation and hardship the IDPs have been exposed to in the past 10 years of the insurgency, noting that, even as an indigene if Kukawa , he has been unable to reach his home town and people in Kukawa community.

Alhaji Alkali stated this while addressing large number of IDPs taking refuge at the Customs House Permanent Site IDPs Camps I and II where he later led his team in company of the IDPs management agency, SEMA Executive Chairman, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo who conducted the NEDC team round the nooks and crannies of Muna Garage IDPs Camp , Muna Farm IDPs Camp, and Stadium IDPs Camps that host displaced people from Marte, Abadam, Kukawa, Guzamala, Konduga, Bama, Dikwa, Mafa, kala Balge, Gamboru Ngala, Gubio, Mobbar and LGAs among others.

According to him, he was in Maiduguri on assessment visit to IDPs camps across the and north east to acquaint himself with the situations on ground with a view to go back to the drawing board and sit down with his other management team to fashion out ways and manners as well as solutions to problems and challenges the IDPs are confronting at the camps.

He explained also that the visit will further enable the management team with the primary information or data in the major issues at stake bordering on the IDPs which he can not get from the secondary sources in form of facts finding towards alleviating their sufferings and ensuring their smooth and speedy relocation to their host communities and localities.

The Managing Director said having inspected major and vulnerable Camps in Maiduguri city, he will visit all the IDPs camps in Monguno over the weekend and proceed to Bama IDPs Camps on Monday next week to assess situations on ground.

The Executive Chairman, SEMA, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo had earlier briefed him on the major challenges at the IDPs Camps where food distribution was lacking adequately at the camps in the past 4 months from the NEMA or federal government as SEMA or state government only handles condiments to the IDPs not food distribution in most cases as earlier arranged.

One of the Chairpersons of the IDPs Camps, Alhaji Bulama Abatcha Mohammed of Customs House IDPs Camp Mafa Road complained of lack of food but commended security agents for their efforts including vigilante groups and CJTF.

He also appreciated the support and assistance from the SEMA, NEMA, donor agencies, individual and corporate organizations as well as the NEDC management tea visit to the camps and prayed for quick return of peace to enable them return home to farm and live a better life.

North-East Commission Sets up N6bn Education Fund

developer — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:03:28 +0000

The Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) has set up an Education Endowment Fund worth N6billion.

According to the commission, the Endowment Fund is to resuscitate the region’s “devastated education sector” and rebuild the human capital.

A statement signed yesterday by NEDC’s Head of Corporate Services, Abba Musa, said the Fund would provide an avenue for the engagement of over 20,000 beneficiaries annually across the region.

He added that the Fund would enable them to access academic and professional capacity development opportunities in various fields. Musa noted that the target is to reach 150,000 beneficiaries in five years.

The NEDC (Establishment) Act was passed in 2017; President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the commission’s Governing Board on May 8. The commission had been putting together a bouquet of impactful and incremental interventions designed to address most of the immediate challenges bedevilling the North-east states caused by the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency and other inter-ethnic strife.

The commission understands that, until hostilities cease to a larger degree, development efforts will amount to nothing.

“It also realises that aside from the direct military action, a number of targeted interventions can contribute to assuaging the pains of conflict and bringing about a permanent peace.

“The commission had, therefore, been working on these non-kinetic possibilities for a start,” the statement said.

The decision to establish the Fund and other intervention programmes were taken at NEDC’s meeting on December 12. Among them is the Rapid Response Intervention programme to address the challenge of damaged infrastructure and other facilities in 112 local government areas.

At least two projects will be rehabilitated in each LGA during the first quarter of 2020 in education, health, agriculture, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and social infrastructure.

The programme will begin with 224 projects.

The statement reads:

“The Education Endowment Fund will provide the required back-up in the training of teachers, nurses, civil servants, amongst others.

“There will be a support to smallholder farmers through all-seasons by providing access to inputs, improved varieties of seedlings, mechanisation and extension/advisory services, marketing, warehousing and other logistics.

“Information and Communication Technology Entrepreneurship and Vocational Training Centres will be established in each state of the region to complement other benefits accruable under the Education Endowment Fund.

“There will be the protection of the environment by the planting of trees and the provision of other palliatives for erosion control and damage remediation.

“Over the years, the region has lost hundreds of thousands of forest resources and vegetation resulting in the extinction of wildlife, desertification, residing of water bodies and general despoliation of the environment.

“There will be support for the enhancement of civil-military relationships, peacebuilding and capacity strengthening of civilian organisations involved with securing peace in non-kinetic ways in the states.”

Musa said the commission’s board also approved funding to stockpile food and non-food items to cater for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“The NEDC remains committed and shall discharge its mandate and take the people of the region to the desired Next Level by collaborating with all stakeholders.

“These include the UN Agencies, International Donor Partners, Non-Governmental Organisations, Federal Government of Nigeria, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, community-based organisations, etc.

“We must break the wall of vulnerability and build instead bridges of sustainable peace, stability and social cohesion across the region,” the statement added.