Involve Stakeholders in Strategic Planning, Bauchi Gov Urges PCNI

Segundo Awofadeji in Bauchi

Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has urged the Presidential Committee on the North-east Initiative (PCNI) to come up with sustainable development programmes by involving the major stakeholders, especially the political leadership of the North-east region in the planning, reconstruction, rehabilitation and economic recovery efforts of the areas devastated by the activities of Boko Haram insurgency.

The governor, who spoke on Thursday during a courtesy call by members of PCNI led by it’s Vice-Chairman, Alhaji Tijjani Musa Tumsah, at the Government House, Bauchi said: “In planning the intervention programme, the bottom-up approach is the best approach, and the committee needs to treat all states in the region holistically, especially in addressing the root causes of the insurgency which are the same in all the states. We in Bauchi are ready to work and give you feedbacks.”

While lamenting that “illiteracy and lack of economic empowerment are the major causes” exploited to recruit thousands of youths into the Boko Haram insurgency, the governor emphasised that large scale agriculture using water sources to irrigate farmlands would provide easy employment opportunities and eradicate unemployment that provide the chances of youths being manipulated and recruited into banditry.

He stressed that agriculture, which provides employment for about 85 per cent of the region’s population, must be embraced and approached with “seriousness by improving the capacity of our farmers and mechanising agriculture to increase yields”, and emphasised that the committee must invest heavily in that critical sector which he called the “alternative to oil”.

More to come…