By 
Tayo AFOLABI
THE North East Development Commission, NEDC, on Thursday, said it has executed 647 projects ranging from agriculture, health, education, energy/power across 112 local government areas in the northeast, with each LGA gulping at least N50 million, the total costs accrues to N5.6 billion.
The NEDC Executive Director, Humanitarian Affairs, Musa Yashi, made this known on Thursday while speaking at the Ministerial briefing,
organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the State House, Abuja.
He noted that three bridges have been constructed in Kudzum, Dilechim and Wuro-Ngayandi areas of Adamawa State, adding that lack of a sturdy education system in the Northeast has fuelled the insurgency.
The MD explained that the management created an Education Endowment Fund with a seed capital of N6 billion; with plans to dedicate 10 per cent of its annual allocation to the fund.
The Commission also said that the Federal Government would require a total sum of N31 trillion (about $80 billion) to fund the North East Stabilization and Development Master Plan 2020-2030.
Yashi lamented that some of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the northeast are unwilling to return to their ancestral homes, saying the IDPs have so integrated with their host communities that they saw no need to return to their original settlements.
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 to be 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 N33 trillion 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 percent 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 has 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 Northeast.
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 N17.5 billion.
The mass housing project includes two-bedroom flats built in clusters. The housing units have been handed over to the Borno State Government who distributed it to various households.
The NEDC was inaugurated by the President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 to coordinate all humanitarian interventions by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies based on the Northeast stabilization masterplan.
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