Adedayo Akinwale
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has revealed that the Stabilisation Development Master Plan for the region will be completed and validated by December, while its implementation would start in January.
The Lead, Master Plan Segment, NEDC, Dr. Kassim Gidado, disclosed this yesterday, during a consultative meeting with representatives of North-east state governments held in Abuja.
He said the master plan, according to the Act, would commence from 2020 to 2030, with the aim of alleviating poverty and bringing about the transformation and prosperity of the region.
Gidado said the objective of the master plan was to create a thriving region that has productive citizens, stressing that the target of the commission was to have 70 per cent of the population in the region to be productively engaged in the economic activities of the region.
He stated: “The actual implementation of the final plan will commence immediately. This Christmas, we will get the final plan completed, validated and we will roll it out by January. We believe that by January the master plan should be up and running.
“The target for the master plan is 2030, but because NEDC is going to implement this master plan, we said that there must be a robust capacity for the NEDC to be set up. So, NEDC has developed their own vision and that vision is that as an organisation, it is 2025 so that it can be reviewed if there is a need for refinement towards the 2030 master plan.”
Gidado revealed that from the questionnaire sent out by the commission, the perception of people of the region, especially those at the grassroots and organisations interviewed, was that the insurgency could be over by 2023.
To this end, he said: “It is possible that by 2023 this issue of insurgency that people talk about is going to be behind us. We need to do that quickly if we are going to bring about sustainable growth that we are talking about if we are to attract the kind of investment that we require to turn the economy of that region. Without dealing with that, it is impossible.”
On his part, NEDC Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Yusuf Kachako, said most of the development projects of the commission were hinged on successes recorded by the military and other security operatives.
He expressed optimism about the implementation of the master plan, hence, the decision of the commission to invest in the implementation.
Kachako added: “There is little or nothing we as a commission can do to change the security situation in the north-east. However we could leverage on successes recorded by the military to implement programmes and projects to sensitise people on development and sustainability and we could also raise early warning systems, these are the areas we can come in as a nation.”
