By Abasi Ita
Nigeria’s Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu has called for attitudinal change, probity and accountability from staff of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to facilitate achieving the expected results which prompted the establishment of the Commission by the Federal Government.
Dr Edu stressed that dubious practices intended to short change targeted beneficiaries of government genuine efforts for selfish reasons will henceforth attract appropriate repercussions from the supervising ministry.
The Minister, who sounded the warning while addressing management and staff of the Commission at its headquarters in Maiduguri, maintained that such tough measures have become imperative to checkmate glaring recalcitrant behaviours which she noted are capable of jeopardizing current steps to accelerate implementation of government rehabilitation agenda for the North East.
She enjoined the workforce to evolve strategic innovative concepts to assist in translating the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, which is targeted at curtailing poverty and humanitarian crises in the region to concrete reality.
Dr. Edu, expressed displeasure over
the poor attitude to work exhibited by the Commission’s top management staff, emphasising that such posture was inimical to the attainment of set objectives behind the establishment of the Commission.
She decried the absence of coordination and harmony among staff and sued for teamwork approach to guarantee optimum performance needed to fast track attainment of short, medium, and long-term goals, in consonant with the Leadership focus of President Bola Tinubu. “It is a team work. We must all collaborate and stop the duplication and wastages.
“Enough of the joke. Working in silos and poor coordination will not give Nigeria results. We can’t continue with the mentality of business as usual. Please let us make U-turn leave politics of division and face the job. Nigerians are waiting.
“President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima are working assiduously on how to reduce poverty and humanitarian crises in Nigeria, and this Commission is very strategic to the people of North Eastern part of Nigeria to drive that agenda. “You must, therefore, fasten your belt and be result-oriented. The only thing I want to see and hear is the result, and teamwork is key to achieving this, “she stressed.
The Minister tasked the Management of the Commission to develop strategic plans geared towards emancipating the people of the region from poverty and humanitarian crises while also providing durable solutions and capital projects that will lead to socioeconomic development.
Edu opined that;”I believe the management team in this hall can bring about the much-needed change to enable us to see a different result. “I challenge you to jettison the conventional ways of doing things, the era of politics is over, so please, give us results, sit down on the roundtable and come out with a road map to implement the master plan of the Commission, aligning it with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President”
Dr. Edu implored development partners notable UNFPA, UNICEF, IOM, and WFO who were on her entourage to rijig their priorities to blend with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Executive Director, Administration, and Finance in the Commission, Dr. Garba Abubakar Illiya, who responded on behalf of the Commission , commended the Minister for the visit assuring that the new work ethics would be strictly adhere to in order to achieve maximum results for overall benefits of the region and the nation at large.
Dr Abubakar pledged the readiness of the Commission to work in tandem with the aspirations of the Minister to pave the way for speedy implementation of its ten-year Development and Stabilization master plan which he described as the core mandate of the North East Development.