By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
One of indefatigable achievements of the former President, General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, is the establishment of North-East Development Commission, in 2017 and the signing of Act on October 25th, 2017 which made the Commission as the focal organisation that is now charged with the responsibility to assess, coordinate, harmonise and report on all intervention programmes, and initiatives by the Federal Government. Its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, States and other Development Partners and for the implementation of all programs and initiatives for the North-East states made up of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe.
The genesis of the Commission came as the aftermath of Boko Harm insurgency where stakeholders advocated that the Federal Government should put up this organisation to address the destruction the insurgency had created which affected the psychological, mentally, emotionally, physical development of the people particularly Borno State which is the hotbed of the attacks.
It was based on these advocacies, adequate publicity by mass media, creating of robust awareness of the economic damages, constant attacks that brought the negative publicity witnessed then and destruction recorded of human resources and physical facilities made the former President, General Muhammadu Buhari to consider the plight of the people in that subregion by establishing the organisation.
The North-East Development Commission is seen as a mission accomplished because the mission and vision of the Commission is established to rebuild infrastructure and institutions destroyed by Boko Haram in northeast,Nigeria and the commission also oversees activities in Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe states.
The NEDC “among other things, is to receive and manage funds from allocation of the Federal Account and international donors for the settlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads, houses and business premises of victims of insurgency as well as tackling menace of poverty, illiteracy level, ecological problems.”
When the Covid-19 came as a holocaust across the globe, the Commission took drastic measures to curtail the spread of the deadly COVID-19, by donating medical equipment and preventive items to the six states in the Northeast geo-political zone in the country and the items donated,no doubt, were Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), ventilators, surgical materials and others.
The success- story was that an astute administrator and versatile leader, Dr Mohammad Goni Alkali was appointed to man the commission as the Chief Executive Officer/ Managing -Director and his achievements were glaringly noticed that most of the Governors, senators, members of House of Representatives, members of States Assemblies, religious and traditional lenders, stakeholders as well as the general public were singing praising of Dr. Mohammad Goni Alkali and his team for the wonderful works of rehabilitation, reconstruction and settlement of internally displaced persons in the zone within few years of its operations.
A cross section of Nigerians who spoke to the correspondent in Gombe, weekend, collectively agreed that the NEDC has done excellently well within the period under review.
According to them, “projects are physically for anyone to come and see and even to touch and feel it, they have been completed awaiting commissioning,” They included:Gombe – solar installation at Specialist Hospital; Kaltungo – Snake Antivenom; Billiri – Farm Service Center at Ladoungur; Akko – Farm service centre at Kalshingi; Kwami – Farm service centre at Dukul;Dukku – Farm service centre at Dukku; Balanga – Farm service centre at Gelengu;Funakaye – Renovation of PHC at Bodour; Ashaka Gari, Abuja;Nafada – Renovation of PHC at Gadi, Shaganawo, Tashan kalgo;Yemaltu Deba – Renovation of Junior Staff Quarters at CGSS Dadin kowa and in Shongom – Upgrade of PHC to cottage hospital.”
Other areas they pointed out are the construction of the 500 Mass Housing Units in Gombe State, the distribution of food and non-food items to address the food insecurity situation in the North-east region especially in Gombe State, commissioned of various Primary Health Cares (PHCs) constructed to provide more access to health facilities in the following places like Nafada – Renovation of PHC at Gadi, Shaganawo, Tashan kalgo, Shongom – Upgrade of PHC to cottage hospital and Yemaltu Deba – Renovation of Junior Staff Quarters at CGSS Dadin kowa as well as the electrification of both urban and rural areas in the state.
No doubt, both observers and pundits in Gombe State subscribed to the fact that Managing -Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Alkali has surpassed some of the governors in terms of providing developmental strides since its establishment by pointing out physical facilities and projects provided by the commission under the review.
According to them,”the Commission provided solar-powered lights at the most important units of the Gombe Specialists Hospital to enhance efficiency in service delivery and ensure that patients receive better attention.
“These units which need constant electricity light to operate at the optimal levels, these include, Administration block, Emergency, Gynae and Paediatric wards, all were provided with solar light by the NEDC.
“The NEDC also provided a 500 KVA generator to the Federal Teaching Hospital in the state even as it is currently constructing a befitting Trauma Centre at the facility. In addition to that, it renovated many of the dilapidated primary health care centres up to standard especially those in Nafada, Shongom and Funakaye local government areas.”
Speaking furher “the NEDC purchased 2,000 doses of anti-venom drugs and donated to same to the Snake Bite Hospital in Kaltungo local government. It should be noted that people all over the nation and beyond come to the hospital for treatment of persons bitten by snakes.
“Which is helping victims of snake bites from Gombe and neighbouring states, because of its high cost which is beyond the reach of the common man, one dose of the anti-venom drug is being sold at the hospital at the cost of N45,000. But with the donation of the drugs by the NEDC, patients now get it free of charge, and to crown it all, Alkali is proposing to make the Kaltungo Snake Bite Hospital a research centre that will be producing anti-venom medicines to cater for the teeming victims of snake bites who troop to it from many places.
” The NEDC built farm centres in four local governments of Kwami, Dukku, Billiri and Balanga saying that, inside the farm centres, there are stores, tractors, and fertilizer for sale or lease to farmers.
“ NEDC established six nursery centres for the production of seedlings in Gombe, Kwami, Nafada, Kaltungo and Funakaye local government areas as part of measures to encourage tree planting and tackle erosion which is a serious problem in the state,” he said.
In the area of education, the Commission built 480 hostel rooms for students as its support in the three mega schools built by the Commission in the three senatorial zones of the state and also built six laboratories, and 16 classrooms in each of the schools and took care of the fencing as well as constructed a one-kilometre road each in the mega schools.
Further investigation also revealed that the Commission under the leadership of Alkali had constructed one block of three classrooms in each of the 11 local governments of the state, awarded contracts for the construction of the Science and Arts Complex at the Federal University Kashere, a Hostel for medical students of Gombe State University, a library for State Polytechnic in Bajoga and some classes at the College of Legal Studies in Nafada.,
Also, the Commission had touched Federal College of Education Technical Gombe through the provision of solar lights at the College and also Clinics at the College of Education Billiri as well as the Entrepreneurship Education and Development (EED) Centre at the College of Horticulture, Dadin Kowa.
Besides, extension workers are available there to attend to farmers who experience some problems with their plants or need professional advice, it will also enable farmers, particularly those in rural areas to have access to farm inputs like fertiliser without coming to the state capital to purchase. But at the centres, they can get everything they require including tractors and extension services.”
Apart from Gombe State that had benefitted from their various intervention programmes of NEDC, other states benefitted hence the former President, General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, approved also a special presidential intervention in Borno State (SPIB) in order to reduce the desperate situation that displaced communities in the state had found themselves through the construction of 10,000 houses and the establishment of Technical and Vocational Skills Acquisition Centres for the IDPs amongst others.
Less privileged were not left out in the agenda of the NEDC as over 500 houses were built for the less privileged members of the society with the first phase of 250 probably completed at the time of filing the report.
Reports also had it that the effects of insurgency led to a massive influx of people into the urban areas with most of them taking shelter at any available public spaces, homes, Schools, huts, abandoned and uncompleted buildings, while millions of people settled in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps across the six- states.
“Investigations by experts revealed that the stock of houses in the northeast states before the insurgency was about 4 million, out of which over 500,000 structures (houses and commercial premises) were destroyed or irreparably damaged. Therefore, the insurgency only further aggravated the situation. In all of this, Borno State being the epicentre of the crisis is worse affected with the largest number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Others are the construction of the first 1,000 houses and fully funded the equipments of the Technical and Vocational/Skills Centres around the Borno state, Construction of 1,000 Houses at Ngowom Village, Mafa Local Government of Borno State and Dr.Alkali
replicated same in the other five states of the region by the construction of 500 houses in each state, building of 250 houses in Damaturu, in Buni Yadi, 50 houses; in Geidam, 50 houses; in Potiskum, 50 houses; in Gashua, 50 houses; in Nguru, 50 houses.
“We have observed that not only NEDC Model Mass Housing is constructing in Yobe, there will be Mega Schools, the Gujba-Ngalda road project and graduation of the third batch of ICT trainees. On mega schools, with the construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Education Sector Infrastructure to redress the high deficit in classroom blocks in both primary and secondary schools throughout the northeast region. This deficit meant that the region has the lowest literacy rate and highest poverty index in the country. Low literacy and high poverty are recognised by experts to be among the root causes of the violent insurgency that bedeviled the region for past years and the situation was further exacerbated by the large-scale destruction of schools and losses in the lives of youths, teachers, students etc.
“Throughout the decade of insurgency, which resulted in the truncation of the education of primary and secondary school students, and even where schools remained standing, widespread poverty coupled with insecurity rendered an estimated 600,000 young people unable to go beyond the primary or secondary school levels. As such, millions of the out of school children in the region remained uneducated, justifying the need for massive intervention in the development of school infrastructure.
The Managing Director resolved to construct three composite mega schools and upgraded existing ones in each state of the region, thus making eighteen, one in each of the Senatorial District.
He added, “We are also going to compliment the physical structure with soft support like teachers’ training, curriculum upgrade, e.t.c. On the flag-off of the distribution of food and non-food items, the issue of imminent food insecurity in the region had been a matter of discourse for a long time.
“The Commission also distributed millions of assorted food items and non- food items to cushion various economic vicissitudes bitting Nigerians from the zone ranging from bags of rice (25kg) 12,000 Gallons of vegetable oil, 10,000Bags of sugar 2,000, cartons of spaghetti, 3,000 cartons of macaroni and donated non-food items, blanket PCS 2,000 (Pcs), Mats 2,000 (Pcs), mosquito nets 2,000 (Pcs), mosquito hand band 10,000(Pcs).
“In the area of ICT training in the region, NEDC trained 2,400 youths in two batches across the six states and donated equipped infectious diseases laboratory for the testing of COVID–19 and other diseases.”