North-East Governors Forum has called on President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime to redress “apparent injustice to the region” and fast-track work on the Mambila Hydroelectric Power Project.

It noted that the zone remained short-changed in the appropriation of capital projects in the 2021 national budget considering the precarious security situation in the sub-region, adding that the region required infrastructural projects to defeat the insurgency.

“There is the need to make an adequate allocation for capital projects in the build-up to the supplementary budget, which is the only means to redress the apparent injustice to the region,” it added.

The governors called on the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) to fast-track the development of a masterplan for the sub-region, just as it advised the commission to work closely with the state governments on areas that required intervention.

After a meeting in Bauchi, the governors appealed in a communique issued late Wednesday and signed by its chairman, Governor Babagan Zulum of Borno, noting that the Mambila project exists only on paper.

The governors stressed the need to accord the project the attention it deserved, adding that its anticipated positive impact of turning the fortunes of the sub-region and the nation upon completion could not be over-emphasised.

They also pledged to be aggressive in repositioning education by forming the North-East Council on Education, with a mandate to improve students’ academic performance.