The 19 northern states are to raise over
N7.6billion to be set aside as rehabilitation fund for the region’s
development. Each state is expected to contribute N400 million to the fund.
This is part of
a report of the Northern States Governors’ Forum Committee on
Reconciliation, Healing and Security, a copy of which LEADERSHIP
obtained yesterday.
According to the
report, there is the need to rehabilitate the region which has, over the years,
suffered so many setbacks in terms of socio-economic development, especially
since the Boko Haram insurgency in 1999 that has, no doubt,
crippled the economy of the region.
Only last week,
the federal
government released
over N5billion as compensation to some states in the north which were engulfed
by the 2011 post-election violence.
The Ambassador
Zakari Ibrahim-chaired NSGF committee on reconciliation has also recommended
the establishment and institutionalisation of a fund that would be used to
rehabilitate the members of the militant group(s) that embraced peace and
dialogue as well as those that were affected by the insurgency in the region.
The 40-member
committee that submitted its 103-page report last week proposed the setting up
of a regional development agency (RDA) whose mandate would be to address the
more critical and fundamental challenges facing the region.
The report
recommends that the rehabilitation fund should be spearheaded and monitored by
the NSGF or a commission set up by the forum.
Specifically,
the report says that members of the NSGF are to take a frontline role in the
rehabilitation fund as “each of the nineteen (19) Northern states should put
down the sum of Four Hundred million Naira as support to the Rehabilitation
Fund”.
The report
further says that this fund to be raised, in addition to other funds raised by
other notable sons and daughters of the region and other friends of the region,
would be utilised to address “a series of issues that will prevent insurgency
in the future and grant our youth gainful engagements”.
Furthermore, the
report says, “The Rehabilitation
Fund and its use will
complement and will be in collaboration with the similar efforts of the FederalGovernment and there shall be a joint monitoring
and evaluation body to ensure accountability and judicious use of the Rehabilitation
Fund”.
It also mandates
the NSGF to demand collaboration of the federal
government in the
support and implementation of the plan for the development of the north as
proposed.
Given what the
report described as poor development indices in the north, it recommends the
setting up of a regional development agency (RDA) whose mandate would be “to
address the more critical, fundamental challenges in a more focused, targeted
and strategic manner”.
“Such a body,
with a lean team of professionals implementing the plan prudently and
diligently should be able to make appreciable progress in raising the poor
indices in respect of empowerment, education, health and
poverty, which frequencies are intractably intertwined,” the report says.
It further
recommends that such an initiative be time-bound: for a period of 10-15 years
of uninterrupted support and hard work.
The report also
makes a strong recommendation for the NSGF to demand from thefederal
government the
immediate release of innocent persons (individuals and institutions’
representatives) from detention centres across the country and, where
appropriate, expedite the completion of investigations or prosecutions of
those that the security agencies have evidence of involvement, in accordance
with the tenets of the rule of law.
The report urges
the NSGF to ensure improvement in the policing
of the borders.
To this effect,
the NSGF, the report says,
should liaise with the federal
government to build
advanced border fencing, equipped with appropriate electronic alarm and
coordinated image monitoring devices to cover the whole of northern Nigerian
border.
It also
recommends the establishment of a special border patrol outfit (with similar
role as coast guards) to be formed to curtail the influx of dangerous weapons
and foreign insurgency elements into the country, particularly northernNigeria.
Source: Leadership
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