Buhari inaugurates North-East Development Commission

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated the North-East Development Commission (NEDC).

The commission also gets N10 billion take off grant, which is already captured in the 2019 budget.

The Senate, in October 2016, passed the bill for the establishment of the North East Development Commission to coordinate the rebuilding of the insurgency-ravaged North East region of Nigeria.

President Buhari assented to the bill on 26th October, 2017.

The inauguration took place before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

The commission had last month presented a budget of N55 billion to the Senate out of which the grant of N10 billion is for humanitarian interventions.

Buhari had in January sent the nominees names to the Senate for confirmation by the senate.

The Senate had last month confirmed a retired army major-general, Paul Tarfa, as chairman of the Commission.

Also confirmed is Mohammed Alkali as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the commission and nine others as members of the board of the commission.

The members are Musa Yashi, Executive Director Humanitarian Affairs; Mohammed Jawa, Executive Director, Admin and Finance; Omar Mohammed, Executive Director, Operations and David Kente, member representing North East zone.

Others are Asmau Mohammed, member representing North West zone; Benjamin Adanyi, Member representing North Central zone; Olawale Oshun, member representing South West zone; Theodore Ekechi, member representing South-East and Obasuke McDonald, member representing South-South zone.