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As NEC Endorses Ward Development Programme
- Safiu Kehinde
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has on Thursday charged state governors to prioritise the welfare of Nigerians by investing more in their future, rural electrification, agricultural mechanisation, poverty eradication and improved investment in infrastructure.
Tinubu gave the charge at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held at the State House Council Chambers, Abuja.
As disclosed in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, the President urged the governors to do more to positively impact the lives of Nigerians at the grassroot.
“I want to appeal to you; let us change the story of our people in the rural areas.
“The economy is working. We are on the path of recovery, but we need to stimulate growth in the rural areas. We know the situation in the rural areas, let us collaborate and do what will benefit the people,” he said.
Tinubu further urged the state governors to collaborate with the Federal Government to drive economic development in rural areas across the country.
“We have to embrace mechanisation in agriculture, fight insecurity and improve school enrolment through school-feeding,” the President said.
This is just as the NEC endorsed a new ward-based development strategy, Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme (RHWDP), to actualise double-digit economic growth through direct intervention in Nigeria’s 8,809 administrative wards across all 36 states.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, had at the 150th NEC meeting gave a presentation on the RHWDP.
The RHWDP, which received full endorsement as a collaborative undertaking between federal, state and local governments, is reportedly aimed at achieving double-digit economic growth through direct intervention in Nigeria’s 8,809 administrative wards across all 36 states.
According to Nkwocha, the initiative is anchored on Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which seeks to achieve a $1 trillion economy by 2030, requiring a growth rate of 15%, while the current rate sits below 4%.
The RHWDP reportedly drew its legal framework from the 1999 Constitution and the Fifth Alteration Act, which mandates state policy toward ensuring food security and improved production methods.
Its key targets include sustainable support for economic activities with minimum thresholds of 1,000 economically active individuals for smaller wards and 2,000 for larger ones.
Following its endorsement, a National Steering Committee comprising representatives from all six geopolitical zones was suggested to oversee the implementation, with the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning as secretariat.
In the same development, Tinubu directed NEC to set up a committee to enhance the actualisation of legacy projects, especially the Lagos-Calabar and the Sokoto-Badagry Super Highways.
He also ordered the transfer of the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation to the presidency to enhance the seamless actualisation of his administration’s legacy projects across the country.
Also, the council directed the strengthening of State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) across all 36 states of the federation and asked the Federal Ministry of Finance to release emergency funds to address impending flood effects.
The council’s resolution came following a presentation by Mrs. Zubaida Umar, Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (@nemanigeria), on the country’s 2025 flood preparedness and response initiatives during the council’s meeting.
NEMA’s presentation detailed the agency’s progress since 2024, including production of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy and Action Plan (2024-2027) with United Nations support, and ongoing validation of the Nigeria Hazard Risk Countrywide Analysis for 2024.
In her presentation, Zubaida disclosed that the agency has improved civil-military coordination on disaster risk reduction and relief operations through partnerships with military disaster response units, the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Nigeria Red Cross.
NEMA, however, identified persistent challenges hindering effective flood response, including weak drainage infrastructure, delayed data reporting from states, insecurity in flood-prone areas, limited functionality of SEMAs and inactive Local Emergency Management Committees.
Additional concerns include poor compliance with urban planning and building codes, alongside inadequate environmental hygiene and waste management systems.
In its recommendation, NEMA urged state governments to fully strengthen SEMAs, operationalise Local Emergency Management Committees, enforce physical planning laws and building code compliance, and institutionalise monthly environmental sanitation while prioritising disaster preparedness funding in annual budgets.
Local government areas and communities were specifically directed to take ownership of local risk mitigation efforts, engage actively in awareness campaigns, and report early signs of flood risk to appropriate authorities.