The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has poverty alleviation and prosperity creation as part of its mandate for the good people of the sub-region.
Other mandates of the commission include, skills acquisition training for self-reliance, provision of accommodation for the vulnerable, as well as moral and financial support to the states in areas of education, health, agriculture, as well as infrastructural development.
NEDC has since commenced execution or undertaking of various development projects across the states in the sub-region, which include units of houses, roads construction, provision of health facilities, drugs and other consumables across health institution and training of field officers in the case of agriculture, in efforts to boost crops and food production for self-sufficiency while ensuring food security for the zone and the country at large.
The commission, according to the managing director/CEO, Mohammed G. Alkali, who is also initiating various other policies such as waste to wealth programme with a view to save the environment from the health hazard associated with waste disposal and also tap into the countless opportunities in the growing waste market. This is done to lift thousands of youths out of poverty through skills acquisition train the trainer workshops in various fields of human endeavours, with a view to step down such knowledge to youths and women.
Example of such training for equal number of participants from the states is the recent training programme for unemployed youths on how best to convert waste to wealth, with a view to reduce high rate of unemployment and improve the socio-economic life of the trainees and by extension the people.
The commission’s various interventions in Bauchi State include construction of one block of six classrooms in each of the twenty local government areas (LGAs) of the state and distribution of assorted educational materials for both primary and secondary schools across the state, among others.
Projects carried out by the NEDC, executed and ongoing in Bauchi State include : construction of six classrooms and one VIP toilet in each of the local governments (total classrooms 120 and 20 VIP toilets); Furnishing of 120 Classrooms in 20 local governments areas across the state; drilling of 20 Solar Powered Boreholes in 20 LGAs; Establishment of Molecular Laboratory Centre in Bauchi State; Establishment of ICT Centre in Bauchi State.
Others are: construction of Cattle Market in Soro, Ganjuwa local government; Establishment/Rehabilitation of Agricultural Nursery; construction of Mega Schools in the state; construction of 500 Mass Housing in Bauchi State; training of teachers; training of youths/scavengers on efficient waste management; training of youths on briquettes and stove fabrication; construction of Kirfi-Gombe Abba road in Bauchi and lots of other humanitarian interventions in the state.
On July 4, 2022, 150 youths and women were trained in Bauchi State on waste management. Participants included 50 trainers and 100 scavengers, with some trainers who read waste management courses in the university, to train scavengers in recycling of waste materials into marketable products for the society, with starter packs given to them after the training to commence their businesses.
The package included: waste collection coats, scavenging booths, protective helmet and scavenging globes, scavenging metal sticks, new washing and drying machine, new PET plastic crushing machines while also institutionalising the process of forming trade associations for viable waste collection trade across the state.
It is part of the commission’s intervention programme to secure job opportunities to guarantee the future of the teeming unemployed youths. This move was part of the NEDC’s intervention programmes geared towards securing job opportunities to guarantee the future of teaming unemployed youths in the sub-region.
The train the trainers programme participants are made up of graduates and NCE holders, while the scavengers are made up of mostly youths that are school dropouts. Some are even Kalare Boys or Sara-Suka (thugs), and the plan was geared to pull them off the streets, be gainfully engaged and be able to earn living through this waste to wealth programme.
It is largely considered that the training workshop would be specifically anchored on waste management, and is not only aimed at training the youths on how to harness these waste and convert them to wealth, but to also boost their capacity by taking them through the fundamental principles of how it is done in safe and better ways.
It is also said that this laudable goal would immensely contribute to the attainment of proper environmental sanitation and solid waste management in the sub-region. The great concern and substantial emphasis on the environment which must be preserved and nurtured, has seriously become necessary for the government and people to jointly act towards solving through public enlightenment and awareness campaigns for massive environmental rehabilitation and protection.
The training was for the beneficiaries to be educated on how to identify and separate recyclable waste from solid waste for a gainful venture, hence the NEDC which is an interventional and developmental commission has the mandate to look into and identify ways of developing the region.
Waste to wealth is one of the areas the commission has identified, which has now become a lucrative business globally. Also identified is its resolve to work to increase knowledge of and respect for peace and peaceful coexistence in the community, through the engagement of selected youth towards de-radicalisation to encourage radicalised individuals to disengage and provide psychosocial support for a better livelihood.
Speaking about the training held at River Edge Hotel Bauchi, the director general of the State Environmental Agency (BASEPA), Dr Kabiru Ibrahim, appreciated the commission for partnering the state not only on environmental related issues, but other key areas of development. Ibrahim said that scavenging which hitherto has been looked down by youths, has now become hot cake the among youths, adding that about 79 per cent of the solid waste collected in the state could be recycle to produce useful products.
He reiterated government’s commitment to encourage recycling and effective waste management in the state. The BASEPA boss expressed readiness of the government to partner with the commission and stakeholders to address waste and other environmental challenges in the state.
Some of the trainees from Bauchi, Anas Mohammed Bakaro and Amina Saleh, Amadu Mohammed Doya who commended NEDC, have assured of making proper utilisation of the opportunity provided for them.
On Information and communication Technology (ICT) in Bauchi State alone, the commission has trained and graduated 580 youths and equipped them with starter packs, as it also established ICT resource training centres in the other five states of the North East, hosted in their various tertiary institutions.
The overall objective of this programme is to improve access to ICT resources within the region and equip the teeming youths including those out-of-school, with the necessary vocational and educational skills and tools that can make them self-reliant.
It is a highly intensive hands-on programme that takes the selected participants through specialised training in graphic design and smart phone repairs, including basic entrepreneurship development, computer appreciation and bookkeeping for small businesses.
The managing director said another 176 from Bauchi State benefitted from the ICT training sponsored by the commission, adding that, already 1,200 candidates have been selected to participate in the second batch of the training.
Meanwhile, Governor Bala Mohammed, after the presentation of the certificates and starter packs at the Government House Bauchi, commissioned an ICT Resource Centre initiated by the North East Development Commission at Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi.
The commission sometimes last year, launched various interventions as support efforts to address food insecurity, and boost socioeconomic development in the Bauchi State.
The commission’s chief executive, Mohammed G. Alkali, said part of the commission’s mandate is rehabilitation and reconciliation of the infrastructural facilities damaged as a result of activities of insurgency, hence the commission’s construction of 500 housing units in Bauchi, 300 of which is in the state capital and the remaining 200 to be spread across the state. These projects have almost now been completed.
The stock of houses in the six states of the North East geo-political zone before the insurgency, was put at about 4 million, out of which over 500, 000 structures including houses and commercial premises were destroyed or irreparably damaged.
It is also on food and non-food items distribution that Alkali handed over 10,000 bags of rice (25kg) 12,000 Gallons of vegetable oil, 10,000 Bags of sugar, 2,000, cartons of spaghetti, 3,000 cartons of macaroni and donated non-food items. Other donations includ: blankets 2,000 (Pcs), mats 2,000 (Pcs), mosquito nets 2,000 (Pcs), mosquito hand band 10,000 (Pcs), as well as the distribution of food and non-food items to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are presently taking refuge in Bauchi State.
As part of its interventions in the sub-region, the North East Development Commission, similarly in September 2021, resolved to construct an International Cattle Market in Soro town of Ganjuwa LGA of Bauchi State, to safeguard the lives of people of the town who have fallen victims of attack by stray cows.
The commission, through Alkali explained that the ultra-modern market has its construction work almost completed, and is awaiting commissioning possibly before this year runs out.
Alkali assured that every needed amenity such as electricity, water, public VIP toilets and other conveniences have been provided within the market for ease of doing business, pointing out that it is part of the mandate of the commission to intervene in areas that will make life easier for people in the sub region.
“I have known about this market since my school years and I know how important it is to the people of the area. Based on the information we have, we decided to relocate the market to a safer and better place within the area of Soro town,” the commission managing director said.
Bauchi State deputy governor, Senator Baba Salihu Tela, who led the inspection team to the project site, expressed delight over the new market, saying that it will go a long way to decongest the town, especially on market days, as well as safe the lives of innocent people who might have fallen victims of stray animals.
Tela however advised that provisions should be made to make business transactions in the market easier, considering that Nigeria has joined the cashless society, hence the need for mobile banking on market days and commended the commission for constructing the cattle market.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, also on the entourage of the inspection team, stressed the need for ownership of the market in order to make it viable and durable, saying, “When the people are involved, they tend to be more involved in the project.”
Also speaking, member representing Darazo/Ganjuwa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Mansur Manu Soro, revealed that the new international cattle market will have 48 locked up stalls, two restaurants that can accommodate 100 people at a time, a 200 capacity mosque, a mini cattle clinic, two boreholes and VIP toilets among others.
The federal lawmaker said that he is worried by the frequent loss of lives in the cattle market, a situation which made him move a motion on the floor of the House, which was unanimously adopted by members, after which the resolution was forwarded to the NEDC for its intervention.
“I am very happy with this development in my federal constituency,” said lawmaker Manu Soro, stressing that the project is conclusively moving on well. He said, considering the size and volume of cattle that come in every market day, it has resolved to expand the market to conveniently accommodate 3000 cattle at a time and make business transactions easier for the people.
Hon Soro explained that the market, when put into use, will reduce congestion on the highway and reduce the risk of people getting killed by oncoming vehicles during the market days.
Recently, the North East Development Commission (NEDC) trained 30 artisans, while scavengers were selected from six states in North East sub-region on fabrication of efficient stoves and briquette production from agricultural and domestic waste. This is in line with the climate change and climatic condition of the environment in continuation of its efforts at creating employment opportunities for the teeming youths.
The managing director/CEO, North East Development Commission, Mohammed G. Alkali, has said that job creation, which is part of the main mandate of the commission, is being aggressively pursued while gradually absorbing the vast number of unemployed graduates without white-color jobs from the sub-region.
Speaking in Bauchi during training for artisans and scavengers of efficient stoves and briquette production from agricultural/ domestic waste, the managing director explained that the model of the stoves was adopted from India.
The managing director who was represented by the head, Environment and Natural Resources of the NEDC, Adamu M Lawan, explained that what the commission is now doing under its job creation programme, is to train the jobless graduates on how to fabricate energy efficient stoves which, he described, as environmentally friendly stoves that are globally accepted.
He recalled that the humanitarian crisis in North East Nigeria has spread over time, and the commission has been making frantic efforts of providing relief and robust lifesaving assistance alongside the national and state government to vulnerable persons in the following six states: Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.
“In view of the willingness of the affected population to voluntarily return to their ancestral community, there is a need to build the capacity of individuals in areas/skills of utmost value, which could preserve their deserted environment and provide the teaming population with livelihood opportunities, through production of briquettes (cooking energy) from renewable sources which are readily and sustainably available in the various communities.”
According to him, the orientation and capacity building training is targeted to revive economic activities and to build the skills and innovative capacity of selected persons, to produce briquettes (cooking energy) from readily available biodegradable raw materials in their community.
The objective of the consultancy is to build the capacity of motivated but unskillful youths, practicing charcoal and firewood sellers, as the training will cover several topics/techniques of production of carbonised briquettes from different raw materials, as well as develop or adapt a training module and manual on briquettes production, using improved technology (Mechanised methods with diesel operated engine).
Managing director/CEO, stated that the trainees after completion would be fabricating the model for sale to the public to earn a living, saying this is what prompted the commission to adopt the training.
He further explained that most of the stoves being in use do not emit carbon monoxide, which makes it friendly, as it has also been tested and found not prone to health hazards and would not negatively impact on the environment.
Alkali, who said that the commission selected five participants from each of the six states in the sub-region, making 30, urged them to be very serious in learning how to fabricate because, as he stated, they should take it as a rare opportunity having been selected.
“At the end of the training, we are going to empower them, we are going to give them starter packs. So, from here if they do very well, we can replicate, maybe before the end of this year, we can do with more participants from the states in the geo-political zone.”
“Because there are no more white collar jobs available any more in the country, we started thinking outside the box on what we can do. This training you are seeing is a waste to wealth programme. We are trying to teach them how to fabricate energy efficient stoves, which are environmentally friendly and are acceptable all over the world.”
“The model of these stoves was initially adopted in India. The trainer here was in Kenya and he emerged one of the best in West Africa, for fabrication of these stoves. So, we feel that this is a very good idea, and it became expedient for us in the NEDC to train our people in the North East so that they will be producing it and selling it in order to earn a decent living. That was the concept that prompted us to organise this training,” he added.
Akali further said that, “Most of the stoves we are using emit carbon monoxide which is dangerous to health but this kind of stove has been tested, the briquettes they are going to use will be sourced from the solid waste and agricultural waste. So, they are going to be treated to become the charcoal that will be used. This is environmentally friendly. That is why I said that it is not going to negatively impact on the environment.”
Also speaking, the consultant to the commission, Engr Saleh Yakmut further explained that the training is on the fabrication of energy stoves and production of crickets from agricultural land domestically.
“The good thing is that these energy efficient stoves have been improved and modernised and they are called the greenlight efficient stoves. And every material is hundred percent locally available and locally sourced, so we won’t have problems with materials at all.”
Yakmut said the commission thought it wise to take directional approach towards enhancing livelihood of women and youths in the North East, saying, it is not just about an environment friendly stove, but also about an environment friendly fuel, meaning an efficient stove not just using an efficient fuel but an alternative, renewable, available and sustainable fuel.
“Meaning that the fuel is going to be gotten from our rice source, sugarcane source, groundnut shelve, coconut shelve, sawdust, and so forth, so every available waste from the farm and the house is a potential raw material for the fuel. So, there is going to be no more cutting of trees.”
The consultant however, said that the better part of it is that the commission has come at the best time because, as he puts it, “Now the World is turning to alternatives and renewables, and thus what we are doing. And I assure you that what they are going to be learning is not just theory, it is what we have been doing at Expedient Global Vision Ltd, Clean Climate Ltd, and Africa Expedience, for the past seven years.”
Some of the participants, Abba Ibrahim, from Yobe and Muhammad Bindiga from Gombe, expressed their happiness for being selected to participate in the training, which they said will make a positive turnaround in their lives, as they will soon become self employed and later employers of others.
The training is being conducted by a team of consultants, African Xpediant Global Vision Ltd and Clean-Climate Ltd. The participants are drawn from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states.
The Bauchi State Coordinator of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Ibrahim Mohammed Bashir, has described the briquette being produced from agricultural and domestic waste as a good source of export earning for the country and the North East sub-region in particular.
Coordinator, Ibrahim Bashir said, “I have been privileged to see the briquette being packaged in cartons for export. If you are able to export it to foreign countries, it would attract a lot of money, so it is a very good source of economic empowerment.”
According to him, “If anyone could be opportune to export at least a load of trailer of the briquette, I’m sure such a person would start manufacturing his own”, and appealed to the training participants not to play with the skills they acquired during the training.
According to him, “It has already been stated that the NEDC will give them some of the equipment they need in order to empower them to be able to train others in their respective areas of proficiency.”
He assured that if any of them encounters any problems, they will be sorted out in consultation with the NEDC saying, “We will make sure that the programme is made to run smoothly so that the aim of training them will be achieved.
Also, speaking during the occasion, the trainer of the artisans and scavengers, Engr Saleh Yakmut, noted that the training has proved that the mandate of the commission has come to be directly proportional with the mandate of the people of the North East sub-region.
He said, “I have done this kind of training for the past 11 to 12 years, but this is the very first time I’m seeing an overall commitment and zeal to actually not only understand the training as a business and to pick up the contents. But the beauty of it all is that the six states are ready to go back and have a synergy on production.”
“If I’m doing stoves in Gombe and another person is doing charcoal in Borno, I can call Gombe and say send me your stoves, send me more charcoal, I don’t have enough. Right now we have an order from only Borno State of 27, 000 bags, and for the past six months, we have only been able to give them 8, 000 bags. Each bag is 30kg and it is being sold at N5, 500.
“So, what North East Development Commission has done now is not only empowered the participants, but even empowered us, the three companies as a business to have more people in the production of the briquette,” saying if this trend continued, it is going to eradicate poverty in totality in the North East sub-region,” Yakmut said.
At the end of the training, 54 years old Mrs Esther Jonah and Jonah Febinuins, emerged overall best in the fabrication of efficient stoves and briquette production from agricultural and domestic waste.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP, an elated Mrs Esther Jonah, commended NEDC for the training which she said has exposed them to the technology of reducing unemployment among teeming youths and creating sources of making genuine wealth.
She said “Of a truth, the experience I have gotten here is that whenever someone is going for a workshop, he should go there with the mind of wanting to achieve something better, because the first day we came here, I was thinking that it will take us only three days but because it was a very good experience, we put in our best effort there.
“All the trainers really tried for us to make sure that we gained what really brought us here. They showed and taught us a lot of things that when we go back, we will be able to replicate to others and thereby eradicate poverty in the North East sub-region. We really got what they impacted in us,” she added.
Mrs Jonah said that she was motivated to fight among the men because she believed in herself, coupled with faith in God, for the ability to perform, saying, “God is always by my side and I know that if I trust in God, He will continue to lead me wherever I go. I did not fear anything. That is the reason I put in my best and to the glory of God, I emerged the best.”
She then called on the federal government to come to their support by providing the necessary things needed for the participants to practice what they have learned, adding that they, from Taraba State, will form a group in order to be able to perform.
The training was put together by the NEDC as part of efforts to eradicate poverty and make youths employers of labour in the subregion.
Some of the trainees, Ahmed Ibrahim Umar, from Adamawa State and Jonah Febuins from Taraba State, said they learned practical aspects of stove fabrication through processing of waste.
Moreover, the The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has donated over 20,000 cartons of assorted drugs and medical consumables to the Bauchi State government to control cholera outbreak in the state.
Speaking while presenting the drugs to the state government, the managing director and chief executive officer (MD/CEO) of the commission, Mohammed G. Alkali, said the gesture was to support the state government’s efforts to prevent citizens from cholera outbreak.
According to Alkali, the drugs and medical consumables supplied, will bridge the gap in the state’s cholera outbreak response to curb mortality and spread of the disease.
“There is also a need to focus more on long-term prevention measures such as ensuring clean water and hygiene measures for communities to prevent widespread future outbreaks.”
On his part, the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, said the state government was committed to the provision of quality and effective healthcare services in the state. He commended the commission for its humanitarian programmes in the region.
Represented by his chief of staff, Mr Aminu Gamawa, Mohammed hoped that the crop of youths trained by the commission, would constitute a hope for creativity where they can think freely and have tools to work.
Managing director and chief executive of the North East Development Commission, Mohammed G. Alkali, has expressed worries that religion is being manipulated to provoke troubles or violence within the communities in the North East in particular and other parts of the country.
To this end, he said, the commission is tirelessly working in collaboration with Sunnah Global Media to commence an awareness campaign programme on the promotion of peace, inter-religious dialogue and radicalisation for peaceful co-existence in the North East sub-region.
Alkali, while speaking at the flag-off of the programme in Bauchi, on the promotion of peace, inter-religious dialogue and radicalisation for peaceful co-existence in the North East, said the objective of the media programme is to reach out and sensitise the public, particularly youths, on the dangers inherent in extremism and radicalisation as well as influences associated with other intoxicants.
The managing director assured that the commission would work with traditional and community leaders, as well as civil society organisations to advocate the importance of tolerance, peace and harmonious co-existence among the diverse ethnic groups in the sub-region.
He assured that efforts are being made by the commission to prevent the most-at-risk individuals from being radicalised and appealed to youths’ conscience to emphasise moderation and peaceful co-existence in society.
Alkali decried idleness in the minds of the youths, quoting the saying “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” and stressed the need for the commission to engage some selected youths to play a role in the de-radicalisation exercise with a view to encourage radicalised individuals to disengage and provide psychosocial support for better livelihood.
He recalled that the existing six states of the sub-region were one, a single state with its inhabitants living peacefully with one another, whether Muslim or Christian, whereas pockets of violence today greet the communities. He said, “Our aim is to completely erase such trends so that the youths who form majority of the populace can live to grow peacefully like our parents did before.
“This is why we are having a training programme with the Sunnah Global Media to propagate peace, living together with social cohesion among the diverse heterogeneous coming into play with the involvement of emirs and chiefs in the entire sub-region”, he said.
Responding, chief executive officer with the Sunnah TV, Mallam Ibrahim Disina assured that the medium would play a vital role in the awareness and campaigns drive of the commission in promoting peaceful co-existence in the North East sub-region.
The Coalition of Arewa Youths Progressive Forum (CAYPF) has lauded the achievements of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) for developing the North East region.
In a press statement signed by the group chairman, Alhaji Salihu Magaji and secretary, Abdullahi Hussain, said activities of the commission which are physically located across the Northeastern states are uncountable.
Salihu Magaji, who spoke for the commission, explained that other interventions by the commission in Bauchi State, included the construction of Bauchi intervention projects by the commission included the construction of Fistula Hospital in Ningi LGA.
Others, the forum chairman said, are the reconstruction of Alkaleri – Futuk, and Alkaleri – Kirfi – Gombe Abba roads in Bauchi State, describing the two road projects as gigantic, but historic roads that are economically viable, regretting however that the two roads have defied successive past successive administrations in the state.
Magaji spoke of the NEDC’s resolve to undertake the two road projects to facilitate economic growth and development for the overall interest of the sub-region, as he enumerated various other development projects recorded by the commission during its short period of establishment.
The commission was established solely to address developmental challenges in the North East sub-region and to restore means of livelihood of the people, following the effects of almost 13 year-long insurgency as a result of activities of Boko Haram.
A statement said that since the appointment of the managing director of NEDC, Alhaji Mohammed Goni Alkali, he has proven to solve the riddle by coordinating, harmonising, and overseeing the success of many intervention and initiative programmes for the Northeastern states through his effective, top, and outstanding managerial skills.
The group described NEDC as one of the pillars and successes of the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari. “The fair and just provision of 3,500 housing units, houses across the six North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states, ease the sufferings of the IDPS and entire people of the North Eastern states.
“When one considers the decay in infrastructures across the country, and the bureaucracies that hinder the smooth operations of many government agencies and compare it with successes recorded by NEDC, which has achieved all its recent successes in such a short period of time – one year, is incredibly stupendous.”
The group added that NEDC has managed to make a lot of progress in bringing relief and peace to the region, “NEDC is a leading horse in different rescue missions and initiatives of the federal government when it comes to changing the narratives of the people of the North East, who have suffered a lot from various crisis the in country, these include: Insurgency, banditry and kidnappings that have caused so many rippling effects, and would take the best of governments several years to correct.
“In addition to the housing units, other essential amenities such as solar-powered street lights and boreholes, a police station and a motor park were provided in the area. Provisions for schooling were also made available. That wasn’t all, many beneficiaries would receive food and other relief items.
“The commission also empowered many farmers by providing them with agricultural machinery and equipments, seeds, fertilisers, agrochemicals and extension services logistics vehicles annually under a programme tagged: Integrated Agriculture Programme (IAP). It covers the whole 112 LGAs in the North East. The NEDC is also into skills acquisition, training and provision of starter packs to Information Communication Technology (ICT) trainees.”
They further said that “In the area of education, the NEDC has built complete primary schools across the 112 LGAs in the North East. And it is working day and night to construct roads that defy past administrations. Some of these roads were designed by colonial masters, for example Alkaleri, Futuk road that links Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba states; Kirfi Gombe Abba road that links Bauchi and Gombe states to mention just a few.”
He said NEDC has constructed many cattle markets, hospitals and made positive interventions in the tertiary institutions, empowering women and youths in order to divert their attention from being lured to conscript into Boko Haram.
The group further said NEDC has so far managed to surmount the many challenges it has been faced with, by the enactment of effective rehabilitation and resettlement programmes, as well as the construction and development of social and physical infrastructure.