Presidential committee seeks partnership with NAN on rebuilding North East
Presidential committee seeks partnership with NAN on rebuilding North East
NAN-H-56
Enlightenment
By Lizzy Okoji and Taiye Edeni
Abuja, July 6, 2017 (NAN) The Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI), has solicited partnership with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to enlighten the public on its interventions in the region.
Alhaji Tijjani Tumsah, the committee’s Vice Chairman, made the call when he visited the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, on Thursday in Abuja.
Tumsah said that the collaboration would ensure that only correct and well researched information was dished out to public regarding the various levels of interventions by the presidential committee.
He said that the media was a critical facet of the society as the public rely on it for information on topical issues.
According to him, it is also imperative that the correct information is disseminated by the media because the international community also learns of activities in the country from local news reports.
Tumsah disclosed that the committee had developed a clear road map for intervention in the region and would appreciate the understanding and cooperation of the media to successfully carry out its mandate.
He said that as the apex body coordinating the rebuilding of the North East, it has so far brought to the fore, the plight of the people through coordinated approach.
The committee’ s vice chairman explained that the North East region which constituted about 22 per cent of the size of the country, had suffered considerably degradation for long due to poverty and under development.
He said that the insurgency further heightened the problems of the region, leading to loss of thousands of lives and displacement of over 1.8 million residents.
The official also said about 50,000 children were made orphans and there was massive destruction of properties and infrastructure among others.
Tumsah said under its strategic framework of action, named the Buhari Plan, the committee now has a blueprint for rebuilding the region.
“Before now we have had quite a number of help from international organisations, the private sector and individuals, but these efforts were not coordinated.
“Then, you will find a situation where a lot of intervention was being done in one place and with none in another place.
“The first task of the PCNI was to aggregate the studies of the world banks, state governments and other developing partners and we came up with the Buhari Plan for intervention in the north East.
“ From the Buhari plan we further distilled high impact programmes that need to be done for succor to be brought to the people.
“This further gave rise to developing the dashboard, a technology that creates the platform available to the public to see what intervening bodies are doing, who is doing what, where it is been done and its impact.
“Recently, we held a two day coordination meeting to bring everybody on page and see what everybody is doing; the meeting will continue on a monthly basis to enable us get feedback,’’ Tumsah said.
In his response, Onanuga pledged the support of the Agency to the committee and commended it for the responsible manner it is carrying out the huge task of rebuilding the North East.
He said NAN, as the largest news agency in the Africa, would avail the committee of its platform to disseminate its activities.
The NAN MD believed that the coordinated approach adopted by the PCNI would ensure rapid success and prevent people from taking advantage of the humanitarian situation in the region to make fast money.
Onanuga stressed that addressing the problems of poverty and education in the region would go a long way in addressing the root causes of the Boko Haram insurgency.
According to him, many youths and children became tools in the hands of the insurgents as a result of illiteracy and poverty.
He said that the situation in the North East was of serious concern to all well meaning people, because only when there was peace that meaningful development would take place. (NAN)
LIZ/TY/DOR/MZA
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Edited by Nyisom Dore/Maharazu Ahmed