Barely a year after its inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative has been hit by paucity of funds.
Vice Chairman of the PCNI, Alhaji Tijjani Musa Timsah disclosed this while hosting Senate Committee on Special Duties in Abuja.
He noted that the Committee was doing a lot in line with its mandate of reconstruction and rehabilitation of victims of insurgency in the Northeast, decrying that funding was a major challenge confronting it.
“We have been able to put up strategic framework to tackle challenges in the Northeast in line with our mandate.”
“We have challenges of paucity of funds. We are calling on Nigerians to rally round us because challenges of Northeast are challenges of Nigerians’, he said.
According to him, the 2018 budgetary provision of N47 billion was grossly inadequate, saying that Northeast has six states with approximately 20%pf Nigeria’s landmass.
Reacting, the visiting Chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Abdulaziz Murtala Nyako, pointed that the legislature was happy with the framework of tackling challenges in the Northeast.
He expressed that the Senate would not rest on its oars until victims of insurgency were fully settled.
The lawmaker who represents Adamawa Central Senatorial district also acknowledged that the agency needed support, pointing out that they could only achieve their plans when sufficient funds were made available to them.
He added that the Senate would look into their budget in 2018 with a view to intervene, saying that devastation in Adamawa state alone as a result of insurgency could gulp over N47 billion which was appropriated for the entire Northeast.
“We are happy with the framework of tackling challenges in the Northeast by Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative and they really need further support.”
“They know what they are doing, they have their plans, particularly funding so that they can achieve their plans,’ the lawmaker maintained.
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