President Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for approving the establishment of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) which has facilitated the gradual return of peace to the troubled subregion.
The commendation was made by the Chairman, Board of NEDC, Major General Paul Tarfa (rtd) during the opening ceremony of a 3-day Capacity Building Workshop on Conflict Sensitive Reporting’ held at the Dujima International Hotel, Maiduguri.
He said that the activities of the NEDC have fast-tracked the return of relative peace to the subregion as victims of the insurgency are gradually being resettled and getting back to their normal routine of life.
Paul Tarfa stressed the importance of peace the more reason the NEDC is striving to ensure that the victims were resettled and allowed to live their normal lives.
He then commended journalists for partnering with the commission in publicising its activities which has made the public real reasons for the establishment of the commission.
Speaking earlier, the MD/CEO of the NEDC, Mohammed Goni Alkali said that in order for the Commission to be able to discharge its mandate, it has to form many partnerships with critical stakeholders including the media.
According to him, “what we have here today is the Media in the value chain, from the field Reporters to the Executives from the various organisations in the country. We are happy to see you all here.
“As I have always said, the Media, the Journalists in whatever form are very crucial and critical to us, there is a partnership between us to the improvements of the public we are serving. We may spend the whole day talking here, the people will not understand until they hear it from the media,” he said
The MD /CEO of NEDC said that the initial plan was to just have a media parley with the Senior Management team but”I was told that, that would have been a major mistake because the on-field reporter must not be left out because he is the one filing in the reports. Today we are all here.”
He added that the Journalists based in the North-East subregion have really done well in effectively reporting the activities of the NEDC since it was established and became operational saying that”your reports are very different from the general reports.”
Goni Alkali stressed that peace is gradually returning to the subregion particularly Borno state which used to be the epic centre of the battle saying”if I had asked you to come over to Maiduguri 2 years ago, none of you would have come because it would have been a crazy idea.”
“But today, we are all here in Wulari which used to be a no-go area because it was a base of insurgents. We thank God that all those are now becoming history. You have really helped us in making the job easier, we appreciate your efforts. The partnership will continue.”(tribune)