By YANGE IKYAA
Outgoing chairman of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) council of ministers and Nigeria’s minister of water resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, has promised to always uphold the ideals of NBA as long as President Buhari retains him as the minister of water resources in Nigeria.
Engr Adamu also called on NBA member countries to speed up the implementation of both the Climate Resilience Investment Plan (CRIP) and the Operational Plan (OP) as a matter of necessity and in order for populations and companies within the Niger Basin to feel the impact of NBA in their lives and activities.
The minister stated this Thursday in Abuja at the extraordinary session of ministers of the Niger Basin Authority.
In his opening speech, he said it has been an interesting five years of service as chairman, NBA council of ministers. He enumerated some achievements of NBA under his tenue as regular holding of the NBA statutory meetings, particularly the meetings of the regional steering committee of NBA projects and programmes and the ordinary and extraordinary sessions of the council of ministers, as well as the commencement of mobilization of funds for the construction of NBA headquarters.
Speaking further, Engr Adamu also enlisted other achievements to include strengthening of the NBA legal framework, with the adoption of “Annex 2 on Water Regulations for the Coordinated Management of Dams and Annex 4 on the Sharing of Costs and Benefits for Common Infrastructure and Common Interest Infrastructure,” commencement of mobilization of funds for building NBA headquarters, and the establishment of the Network of NBA Journalists and Communicators, amongst others.
He equally “sincerely” thanked all the development partners, particularly the World Bank, as well as lead member of NBA’s technical and financial partners for their multifaceted support, which enabled NBA to make significant progress towards a sustainable and peaceful integrated development of the Niger Basin.
Earlier in his speech, the NBA executive secretary, Abderahim Bireme Hamid, noted that the achievements made by NBA are the outcome of the combined individual and collective efforts.
He further stated that during the ordinary sessions of the council of ministers held in April 2018 and October 2018 in Abuja, they performed the 2015, 2016 and 2018 account audit, which had been frozen for more than 3 years.
According to him, they also had the reservations withdrawn and further obtained clearance for implementing the executive secretariat’s activities.
“That was the essential element of their desire to sanitize the NBA house and it enabled the technical and financial partners to come back,” said Hamid.
Representative of the technical and financial partners, Jochan Rudolph, appreciated the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) council of ministers and the executive secretariat for their pro-life activities in NBA member countries.
The nine NBA member countries are Benin Republic, Burkina Fasso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. They have one goal of improving the socio-economic wellbeing of the populations within and outside the Niger Basin.
At the end of the session, the ministers and heads of delegation adopted the resolutions on the roadmap for the implementation of the organisational chart adopted by resolution number 5 of the 39th ordinary session of the council of ministers, construction of NBA headquarters, implementation of the operational plan, and developments on the issue of the European Union, among many others.
