Vice
President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has welcomed the offer of support from
Ambassadors from several nations who are based in the country regarding the
rehabilitation programmes of the Buhari presidency for the North-East region.
In
a meeting with several Ambassadors, heads of mission and diplomats from the
United States, Japan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and eight European nations
today in his office, the Vice President thanked the envoys and their countries
“for your attention to matters of the North-East, the very close attention that
you pay, and the so many international bodies and agencies who have acted and
expressed their wishes to offer assistance.”
He
said the issue of the rehabilitation of the North-East is a “matter close to
the president’s heart,” adding that he himself is also very active in the
overall coordination of the efforts.
According
to him coordination of the rehabilitation plans is now the critical issue,
expressing the expectation that the envoys would work with the Presidential
Committee on the North-East, PCNI, headed by General T.Y. Danjuma.
He
explained that the PCNI is now the new structure President Muhammadu Buhari has
put in place to coordinate the efforts, clarifying that the PCNI now
encompasses the Presidential Initiative on the North East, which was the former
body in place. But the PCNI now also includes the Victims Support Fund, VSF,
headed by Danjuma and Safe Schools Initiative formerly in the federal Finance
Ministry.
Prof
Osinbajo added that his office would actively and directly be involved in
overseeing the new structure in addition to his office’s responsibility to
supervise the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, another active agency
in the process.
The
group of ambassadors called “Like-Minded Ambassadors on support for the
North-East" was led to the meeting with the Vice President by the United
States Ambassador, Mr. James Entwistle who expressed the interest of the
international community to partner with the Federal Government in the
rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North East zone of the country
destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency.
According
to the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Entwistle, the group
was at “the State House to meet with the Vice President, to compare notes and
make sure that we understand each other on the scope and size of humanitarian
challenges and how we can coordinate when the time comes for the internally
displaced to go home.”
He
also said the group has come to discuss the upcoming workshops and seminars and
for the diplomats representing different countries to know areas where they can
help as some of them are already helping. The Ambassador/Head of the
European Union Delegation in Nigeria, Mr. Michel Arrion also spoke at the
meeting, disclosing that the EU has set aside a trust fund he described as a
basket fund, from which funds would be drawn to offer assistance, especially in
addressing the root causes of crisis in the Sahel region.
EU
nations represented at the meeting included Britain, France, Germany, Ireland,
Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands and Norway.
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