Vice President Yemi Osinbajo Tuesday said the Federal Government welcomed the offer of support from ambassadors of different nations, who are based in the country, regarding the rehabilitation programmes for the North- East.
In a meeting with ambassadors, heads of mission and diplomats from the United States, Japan, Turkey, Canada, Australia and eight European nations in his office, the vice president thanked the envoys and their countries for the concern on matters of the North-East.
According to a statement issued by Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, Osinbajo said the issue of rehabilitation of the North-East was a matter President Muhammadu Buhari has taken with all commitments.
He said coordination of the rehabilitation plans was now the critical issue, expressing the view that the envoys would work with the Presidential Committee on the North-East, PCNI, headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd). He explained that PCNI was now the new structure put in place to coordinate the efforts, stressing that the body now encompasses the Presidential Initiative on the North East, which was in place before.
According to him, PCNI now include the Victims Support Fund and Safe Schools Initiative formerly in the Federal Finance Ministry.
Osinbajo added that his office would actively and directly be involved in overseeing the new structure in addition to the responsibility of supervising 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 by the United States Ambassador, Mr. James Entwistle.
He expressed the interest of the international community to partner with government in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North East destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Ambassador/Head of the European Union Delegation in Nigeria, Mr. Michel Arrion, who also spoke at the meeting, disclosed that EU has set aside a trust fund, to offer assistance, especially in addressing the root causes of crisis in the Sahel region.
EU nations represented at the meeting include Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands and Norway.
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