President Goodluck Jonathan says the Federal Government was negotiating for a $400m special fund from the World Bank to tackle the menace of erosion in the South East.
President Jonathan was speaking to a delegation of the South East Council of Traditional rulers.
‘We are getting $400m, a special fund from the World Bank, to tackle the erosion in the South East. This is apart from the line votes in the budget for checking erosion’, he stated.
The President said Federal roads in the country were receiving necessary attention, while the Enugu Airport would handle international flights after its transformation.
Earlier, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, Obi of Obinugwu and Chairman of the South East Council of Traditional Rulers, said the people of the South East were worried about the slow pace of rehabilitation work on roads in the zone, threats to lives by erosion, and the activities of Boko Haram, and were pleading for the President’s intervention. He also expressed concern at the killing of Igbos in parts of the country, and the need for a constitutional role for traditional rulers in the country.
Recall that a sizable part of Nanka, Oko and other communities in the south east are already sacked by erosion. Successive governments have paid lip service to controlling erosion while billions of naira have been squandered through the ecological fund.
