By Ndahi Salihu, Maiduguri
The North East Development Commission, NEDC, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with a Chinese construction company, Mutual Commitment Group, MCG, on the ongoing Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, RRR, of millions of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and other victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.
This was disclosed in an interview with the NEDC Chairman, Major General Paul Tarfa, rtd, after a closed-door meeting between the newly reconstituted NEDC board members, including the Managing Director, Goni Alkali and the management team of the MCG, led by its Managing Director, Mr. Long Liu, at the conference hall of the commission’s head office in Maiduguri on Tuesday.
Tarfa said that the MOU became imperative to scale up the people-oriented interventions executed by the commission in the six states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba.
The NEDC Chairman averred that the over one decade attrocities perpetrated by the insurgents in the region was very alarming, adding that a holistic approach is needed to address most of the short- and long-term durable solutions.
He pointed out that the areas of collaboratuin include: “Renewable Energy/power generation, health care, education, agriculture, roads construction, favourable climate, jobs creation, poverty alleviation, rehabilitation and resettlement.”
Addressing journalists, the MD of MCG, Mr. Liu, said, “We are at the NEDC office together with my entourage as development partners to sign an MoU on infrastructre, industry and regional development projects in the North-East sub-region.
“This MOU is aimed at resolving the immediate challenges and devastations that were carried out by insurgents, and the attendant economic meltdown.
“We are to start prioritizing key areas such as reconstruction, ecological and climate change, power, transportation, resettlement, education and a hosts of other projects.
“We want to assure the people in the region and Nigerians that MCG would do its best to change the narratives, through reintegrated approach mechanism, and to also attract more investment opportunities.”
