By Olukayode Michael, Maiduguri
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oando Plc, one of
Nigeria’s largest indigenous energy companies, Mr. Wale Tinubu on Tuesday said
the humanitarian needs of crisis ridden North East is beyond the Nigerian
government and any international agencies.
Tinubu, who led other top chief
executives to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, said: “This initiative is
about Nigerians helping Nigerians. Today I have seen some of the most
vulnerable people; women and children in the most dire circumstances. Haven seen
the magnitude of the humanitarian needs, it is obvious that it is not a task
that the Government or any one agency can take on alone.”
He added that: “The onus is on us to use
our position to repair, nurture, build and sustain our society and pave a path
for a truly inclusive economy.”
Also in the delegation to see how the nation’s business community could assist
in the planned reconstruction of Borno State and aid assistance to two other
states of Adamawa and Yobe affected by the decade old crisis, are Access Bank’s
Group Managing Director, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, and former chairman of the Nigerian
Economic Summit Group (NESG) Mr. Kyari Bukar, among other private sector
leaders, who joined the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward
Kallon.
They paid a visit to two IDP camps in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, with
other UN representatives and met people whose lives have been uprooted by the
ongoing crisis.
Also speaking during the visit, Kallon said: “The humanitarian community has
been working tirelessly to provide shelter, food, health care and other basic
needs to families who have been left with little or nothing. To see CEOs of
banks and energy companies show compassion for the mothers and fathers,
daughters and sons affected by this crisis brings a new beacon of hope for
people who have endured too much.
“Together with the leading business minds in Nigeria, there is so much more we
can do for Nigeria’s most vulnerable people.”
He noted that the visit was part of the
Nigeria Humanitarian Fund-Private Sector Initiative (NHF-PSI), a groundbreaking
global initiative created in Nigeria that will see companies join donor
countries in pooling donations and resources together.
The platform aims to create a more collaborative and effective response to the
ongoing humanitarian crisis that has affected over 7 million people in
Nigeria’s north-east, 80 percent of whom are women and children.
While in Maiduguri, the delegation also met with the Executive Governor of
Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima who welcomed this unique partnership.
Shettima said: “I am very glad that the
Nigerian private sector, a very vibrant sector, is at the vanguard of driving
this programme. In the UN, Nigeria’s private sector has found a partner that
has the integrity to truly make things work.”
Fourteen of the biggest companies in Nigeria signed up to the initiative
launched in Lagos in November 2018, which will harness their financial
resources, innovative capacity and entrepreneurial drive in support of the
humanitarian response in the affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
The NHF-PSI offers a measurable and accountable platform for companies to pool
their resources together to more effectively transform the lives of millions of
their fellow Nigerians.
To date, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund has raised $83 million in contributions
and pledges, thanks to the generous support of seventeen donor countries.
Nigeria boasts one of Africa’s largest economies with an emerging and thriving
private sector globally.
The United Nations and founding private sector members of the initiative are
urging more businesses to come together and collaborate under the platform of
the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund-Private Sector Initiative.
