Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu has charged the management and staff of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, to change their mindset and attitude to work, warning it would no longer be business as usual.
The Minister, in a statement Tuesday morning, by her Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Rasheed Olanrewaju Zubair, gave the charge while addressing the management of the Commission at its Headquarters in Maiduguri.
She urged them to work with a strategy that will help to deliver the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu, which is aimed at reducing poverty and humanitarian crises in the region.
Dr. Edu, who was disappointed over the attitude to work of the Commission’s top management staff, said only collaboration and partnership will help the Commission to deliver on its mandate.
She frowned at a situation where various departments don’t share knowledge or collaborate, leading to difficulties in achieving short, medium, and long-term goals, saying it won’t work under the leadership 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 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 together 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 the agenda. “You must, therefore, fasten your belt and be goal-oriented. The only thing I want to see and hear is the result, and teamwork is key to achieving this, “she stressed.
The Minister challenged the management of the commission to come up with strategic plans on how to lift people of the region out of poverty and humanitarian crises. Providing durable solutions and capital projects that will lead to development and poverty alleviation
Edu said: “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 to implement the master plan of the Commission aligning it with the Renewed Hope agenda of Mr President”
Dr. Edu appealed to some of the development partners in attendance, including UNFPA, UNICEF, IOM, and WFO, to reprioritize the Governments mandate and key into the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The Executive Director, Administration, and Finance of the Commission, Dr. Garba Abubakar Illiya, who responded on behalf of the management team, assured the Minister that the message of collaboration and partnership was well received by them,saying they will henceforth work as a team to achieve success.
He promised the Commission would work with the minister to enable speedy implementation of its ten-year Development and Stabilization master plan.
