NEDC has brought succor to northeast-Zulum

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum says the creation of the North East Development Comission has brought succor to the people of the state and the entire northeast.

Zulum said this at the Government House in Maiduguri while receiving the House of Representatives Committee on North East Development Commission.

He said considering the huge number of the internally displaced persons at IDPs camps and host communities, it was no longer sustainable for IDPs to depend on handouts coming from nongovernmental organisations, the NEDC or the National Emergency Management Agency.

According to him, the only solution is to ensure reconstruction of communities, rehabilitation and resettlement of the IDPs back to their ancestral homes in a dignified manner.

“If it’s not possible to go back to their communities, there’s a need for the federal government to provide accommodation to them so that they can settle in a place where it’s safe to engage in their means of livelihood.

“Last time even in Monguno alone we spent over a billion naira in a day providing a food, items to the IDPs, yet, we were unable to cover 50% of the total population of IDPs in Monguno,” he said.

Zulum called on the management of the NEDC to work with various state governments to fix the infrastructural deficit in the northeast.

The governor sought the support of the National Assembly on budgetary allocations to the NEDC.

The chairperson of the committee, Khadija BukarAbba, said: “With what we’ve seen, we’re really impressive that the NEDC has achieved in such a short period less than year since it began operation.

"At the IDP camps, we’ve seen many women and children, and old persons who needed food more than anything else to survive, and we feel the challenges are overwhelming and the NEDC is underfunded."