Insurgency, not lack of political will, hindering North-East development, says Ndume
Senator Ali Ndume, on Tuesday, identified insurgency, and not the lack of political will, as the factor hindering development in Northeast Nigeria.
Ndume made this known in Abuja at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum.
According to him, the acts of terror are making it impossible for contractors to move into the zone to execute developmental projects, the government has approved.
“The biggest challenge that we have in that area is insurgency. That makes it impossible for contractors to move in.
“So what we decided to do for a while now, is to empower our people.
“I remember NCC wanted to build a computer centre so that JAMB’s Computer Based Test could be done in Biu, Askira-Uba and Ushani.
“We got the three locations, but the contractor refused to go and they took it (the projects) somewhere else.
“And this road, from Maiduguri to Biu, even to maintain it, FERMA staff, one time, two of them were killed there.
“The Chibok-Damboa Road, about eleven of their staff were killed there.
“They burnt all the equipment of the contractor on site, while the contractor fled.
“The Biu-Gombe Road, which is very critical and even safer, is being seen as a dangerous one by contractors.
“The International community, especially the United States and China have marked the Northeast, especially Borno, as a black spot.’’
Ndume said it was for those reasons that stakeholders in the area decided to focus on “direct empowerment of our people’’.
NAN reports that Ndume emerged the Borno South candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the October senatorial primary election ahead of the 2019 elections.
(NAN)
