The birth of North East Development Commission

“I expect that the expeditious coming into force of the commission will remedy the long years of under-development suffered by the region. The recovery and redevelopment of the zone devastated by terrorism is expected to last decades.” – Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives.

News broke last week that President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the North East Development Commission bill passed by the National Assembly. I congratulate the Speaker of House of Representatives and Senator Ali Ndume who are the lead sponsors of the bill in the two chambers of National Assembly. I equally felicitate with all sons and daughters including residents of the beleaguered North East Nigeria on this well-deserved federal intervention. The lamentable development situation in that geo-political zone is well known. Even when there was no Boko Haram insurgency, NE has always lagged behind in human development index.

In May 2015 Senator Abdul-Aziz Murtala Nyako did a concept note calling for the establishment of North East Development Commission. In that paper, the Senator quoted the National Bureau of Statistics 2010 data to buttress his campaign for the establishment of NEDC. According to him, “NBS’ 2010 Statistics show that the North East of Nigeria has the worst socioeconomic conditions in the country. Its average absolute poverty rate put at 69 per cent is above the national average of 60.9 per cent. This characterizes the Zone as having the highest rate of poverty in Nigeria.” The Senator did not stop at that. He quoted other credible sources such as the United Nations Children Fund and West Africa Examination Council. While the national average of Out-of-school children in primary school as at 2011  is 26.3 per cent, that of NE region stood at 44.8 per cent; also while the country’s national average  of  Out-out-school children (Junior Secondary School as at 2011) is 25.7 per cent, that of NE zone was 49.6 per cent. Similarly, as at 2012, while the national average percentage of candidates with five credits and above including Mathematics and English was 30.9 per cent that of NE stood at mere 8.72 per cent.  It is that bad!

Before the 2009 kickoff of hostilities by the insurgent group better known as Boko Haram, NE used to be peaceful with majority of the inhabitants of the six states that made up the region namely Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Taraba  and Bauchi engaging in agriculture. The geo-political zone has also produced many political juggernauts, academic giants and business octopus. Among them are the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi State, former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Defence, Gen. T.Y Danjuma from Taraba State, ex-Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa State, and incumbent number four citizen and Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi State.

The Presidential Initiative for the North East in its 2015 – 2020 Economic Reconstruction and Redevelopment Plan succinctly captured the situation in the NE when it stated thus: “In the past, the North East region was renowned as a bastion of commerce and trade with prominent local enterprises and well established trade routes across the Sahara. It was known for its large agricultural potential, with 80 per cent of the population engaged in farming and contributing significantly to the regional and national GDP…….Over the past two decades however, the region has regressed with low education levels, access to healthcare/ other basic amenities and low GDP per capita. A once promising zone now trails the other regions of Nigeria across all socio economic indicators.”

As the Chief Executive Officer of Forward in Action for Education, Poverty and Malnutrition, a non-governmental organisation headquartered in Bauchi, I bear testimony to the gross underdevelopment of the NE geo-political zone. Our intervention which covers eight thematic areas namely  education, peace and conflict management, gender and disability issues, water and sanitation, nutrition, health, Orphans and Vulnerable Children as well as Democracy and Good Governance has been able to impact positively on the zone with funding support from many international donor agencies. Yet, our intervention, just like several others in the zone is like a drop in the ocean because there is so much to do but the resources are very limited. It is thus heartwarming that North East Development Commission will help scale up and speed up development in the zone.

Press release from the Office of Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters – (Senate) Senator Ita Enang says NEDC will among other things: Coordinate projects and programmes within the Master Plan for the rehabilitation, resettlement, reconciliation, reconstruction and sustainable development of the NE  Zone in the fields of infrastructure, human and social services, including health and nutrition, education and water supply, agriculture, wealth creation and employment opportunities, urban and rural development and poverty alleviation. It will also liaise with Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, States and Development Partners on the implementation of all measures approved in the Master Plan for the stabilisation and development of the NE by the Federal Government. Assess and report on any project being funded or carried out in the NE by any Federal Ministry, Department and Agency or company that has an agreement with the Federal Government, and ensure that funds released for such projects are properly utilised.

Other functions include: To liaise with other stakeholders on the tackling of humanitarian, ecological and environmental problems and degradation that arise from natural causes, insurgency and industrial activities in the NE Zone.  Seek humanitarian, human, material, technical and financial support from Development partners (local or international) and NGOs with a view to developing the NE Zone. Co-ordinate civil-military confidence building and stabilisation measures and also activities that lie within the civil-military interface especially before, during and after military and security operations; and Act as the focal point to coordinate and harmonise all other interventions programmes and initiatives that the FG  is involved with in the NE  Zone.

This is a very wide mandate and I do hope the bureaucrats who will manage this new commission will learn from the pitfall of Niger Delta Development Commission which over the years has been embroiled in all manner of controversies including allegations of corruption, project abandonment and inefficiency largely as a result of political intrigues.

NEDC is coming at the right time as the commission should be able to get its first budgetary allocation from the 2018 budget the president will be presenting soon to the National Assembly.  Now that we have the new commission, will the TY Danjuma led Victim Support Fund and the Presidential Initiative for the North East still be existing alongside the new commission or will they be merged with NEDC? I expect them to be dissolved into the new commission. For NEDC to succeed better, the insurgency in the zone must be halted; otherwise, whatever is done at the epicenter of the crisis may be tantamount to mopping a leaking roof.  

Lastly, I will enjoin Federal Government to prioritise national development rather than continuing to set up regional intervention agencies. Recall that the bid to set up South East Development Commission was botched at House of Representatives earlier in the year and other regions too may soon be justifiably angling for intervention agencies.  

Follow me on twitter @jideojong