EDITORIAL As rebuilding North East begins
Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo was in Maiduguri last week where he attended a two day Humanitarian MultiStakeholder Engagement with the theme “Coordination, Communication and Cooperation.” He seized the opportunity to unveil a five year Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of the North East, which has been ravaged by six years of the Boko Haram insurgency.
While in Maiduguri, Prof Osinbajo expressed the Federal Government’s commitment to bring the insurgency to a quick end and to restore normalcy to the region. He said, “The tasks before us are many and profound, to fix brick and mortar and to mend hearts and minds damaged by senseless, murderous violence. But we are called not just to mend the hearts and minds of the victims but also of their traducers and killers. The young men and women who have been brainwashed to kill, maim and destroy in the warped belief that by so doing they please God.”
The Vice President Professor therefore called on development partners to coordinate their activities for better performance.
At the launch, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on North-East Intervention General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) said the Federal Government will spend N233 billion on post-insurgency reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected communities. He said N97 billion is to be spent on short term measures while another N116 billion is to be spent on the medium term plan to assist victims of the insurgency to restart their businesses.
Though the actual source of the funds to finance this gigantic project was not clearly stated, it could be recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the Victims Support Fund Committee chaired by Danjuma on July 31, last year. Jonathan had called on well meaning Nigerians to contribute their widow’s mite towards providing succour to victims of Boko Haram attacks. Sadly, during the committee’s recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, General Danjuma lamented that out of the N55.92 billion pledged at last year’s launch, only N23 billion was redeemed while N33.54 billion is yet to be redeemed.
Among the unredeemed pledges was that of the federal Government. Former President Jonathan, who personally served as Master of Ceremony at the fundraising ceremony had led the donors by donating N10 billion on behalf of the Federal Government. Buhari therefore directed the then Head of Service of the Federation Danladi Kifasi to facilitate the immediate release of the N5 billion pledged by the Federal Government.
Similarly, in July, this year, the World Bank had pledged during a meeting with President Buhari in Washington last July that it will spend $2.1 billion on rebuilding infrastructure in the northeast. The funds will be spent through the World Bank’s International Development Agency in the form of low-interest loans, which will be interest-free for the first ten years and then accrue at a below market rate thereafter. With all these pledges, it looks as if funding may not be the project’s biggest problem. Close coordination and the utmost prudence are however called for in the circumstances.
A project such as these requires all tiers of government in the North East region to play their roles in rebuilding infrastructure and facilities destroyed by the insurgents. The Borno State Government has already kicked off its effort to rebuild some liberated communities. The Federal Government should do its own bit with major infrastructure while the state and local governments should rebuild their own roads, schools, hospitals etc. beyond that, we expect all states in the country to lend a helping hand as Lagos State Government recently did by donating 50 million each to the three most affected states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Communities, civil society groups and indeed all Nigerians should also assist in whatever way they can. No one has enough but then, we must help our brothers and sisters who are in distress.
We must in addition mobilise the international community to come to our aid. The Federal Government should set in motion and coordinate the machinery for this mobilization, which must be done cleanly, efficiently, expertly and transparently. We cannot allow charlatans to dupe some unsuspecting international agencies or countries in the name of helping Boko Haram victims. Just as the Federal Government set up a credible national committee to undertake this effort, it needs an international committee headed by another credible Nigerian to spearhead and coordinate this effort.