Commission unfolds new development plan for North East

A new stabilisation and development master plan has been unfolded for the North East region to transform the insurgency-ravaged states of Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe.

The plan is tagged “Northeast Stabilisation and Development Master Plan (NSDMP).

The 12-year old insurgency has claimed over 46,000 lives with about $9.2 billion (N3.42 trillion) property destroyed in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

While announcing the development plan at a Humanitarian, Development and Peace (HDP) building stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, the Managing Director, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, said: “It is an all-inclusive roadmap for peace, reconciliation and rehabilitation of victims of insurgency. The execution of this master plan could reactivate, replace and reconstruct the insurgency affected region.”

According to him, the master plan would enable the commission, in collaboration with the affected states, to resettle over a million IDP returnees into liberated communities.

Alkali explained that the new plan encompasses regeneration, redevelopment, and sustainable growth and development of the region.

He said this would focus on both alleviating poverty and promoting prosperity using transformative projects and programmes.

“The Act establishing the commission provides the need to have a master plan. The road map could also realise the humanitarian development and peace building of region.”

On the implementation of the plan, Alkali said: “The six state governments might have their master plans, but they could be streamlined into a single development plan.