Traditional rulers from the three states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe in the north-east subregion of the country have commended the Federal Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for executing impactful projects in their respective domains through funding from the Government of the Netherlands.
The commendation was made by the traditional rulers during the Endline and Local Investment Plan Meeting of the programme held at the Conference Hall of the Emerald Hotel, Gombe.
The three North-East states were the beneficiaries of the project, which addressed issues of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in some selected communities in six LGAs across the states.
The programme officially ended with the commendation of the Government of the Netherlands, which sponsored it, while UNICEF and the Federal Government of Nigeria were the collaborating implementation partners.
The traditional rulers and local government stakeholders were in attendance during the endline meeting, expressing their happiness and joy over the success of the programme.
Speaking at the meeting, the Emir of Jajere in Yobe State, Alhaji Hamza Buba, appreciated the Netherlands for providing adequate funding for the execution of the WASH project in the three states.
He maintained that the programme will enhance going further for a cleaner Nigeria where WASH facilities will no longer be a problem.
The Emir stressed that traditional institutions have a pivotal role to play in achieving a cleaner and healthier society, considering their closeness to their subjects.
Hamza Buba added that the need for a better society that will lead to a better country cannot be overemphasised, saying that with attitudinal change, it can be achieved.
According to him, “We need a prosperous Nigeria, and we should pray to overcome security and other challenges facing the people across the country.”
“And pray God to give more wisdom to our leaders as we are looking forward to a bumper harvest for our people to compliment government efforts towards addressing food insecurity in the country.”
In his own remarks, the Emir of Ngelzarma, Alhaji Mohammed Zanna Yeri, stressed the importance of rubbing minds to tackle the challenges of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
While thanking the donors and the implementation team, he called for more efforts to address the gaps noticed in the three states as they were identified during the implementation of the project.
While responding to some of the key issues raised by the traditional rulers at the meeting, Emmanuelle Easili from Adamawa State said, “We are making an effort towards that concern raised by one of the representatives of traditional institutions on how best to address some of these gaps identified as the project comes to an end. We will do more, especially if we go back to our communities.”
So also shortly after the endline meeting with traditional institutions and other local stakeholders, representatives from the water supply and support services, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, explained the action plan on sustainability, urging the stakeholders to leverage on that.
According to him, “Most of our water facilities are unsustainable, so we adopted accessibility checks, and we were able to discover that about 46% of our water sources are unsustainable.”
“So, working with UNICEF, we are able to develop an accessible check report, the first of its kind in Nigeria and, of course, globally,” he said.
Presentations were delivered by the representatives of the governments of the three states on the issues and areas of concern, highlighting the successes and challenges that need attention and the way forward for the sustainability of the project in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for the benefit of local communities.
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