Matters arising from mushrooming of development commissions

 

President Bola Tinubu last Wednesday, July 24, 2024, brought the number of development commissions in Nigeria to four by signing the North-West and South-East Development Commissions bills into law. Recall that the Niger Delta Development Commission was the first to be established in 2000 with the core mandate of bringing development to the oil-producing states of Nigeria. This was followed by the setting up of the North East Development Commission in 2017.

Muhammadu Buhari assented to the North East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2017 in October of that year. The then Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, made this known in a statement. According to him, the Act establishes the North East Development Commission. He noted that the commission had the mandate to receive and manage funds allocated by the Federal Government and international donor agencies for the resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of roads, houses and business premises of victims of insurgency. He added that the Act would also help in tackling the menace of poverty and environmental challenges in the North–East.

According to a July 24, 2024 terse press statement from the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, “President Bola Tinubu has signed into law bills to accelerate development across geo-political zones in the country. The President has assented to the North West Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024, and the South East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2023.”

“The North West Development Commission is set up to facilitate the reconstruction of roads, houses, and business premises destroyed by multidimensional crisis, as well as tackle poverty, literacy level, ecological problems, and any other related environmental or development challenges in North-West states. In addition, the South East Development Commission is established to ensure the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses, and other infrastructural damages suffered by the zone, as well as tackle ecological problems, and other related environmental or developmental challenges in South-East states.” Ngelale said President Tinubu believes in building the nation on the fulcrum of fairness, equity, and unity; hence, he is committed to ensuring equitable development, inclusive governance, and the provision of qualitative services to all Nigerians — no matter where they reside — while knitting even more tightly together the national fabric.

On the surface, this is a welcome development and should ordinarily be lauded. However, I am concerned about a number of things. I do not in good conscience think we need these commissions which are going to be largely contracting centres and another honeypot for influential political elite. The NDDC is 24 years but the commission has been largely plagued by corruption, political intrigues and inefficiency. Most of the awarded projects are uncompleted and abandoned and the few that were completed are alleged to be sub-standard. Budgetary allocations to the commission are often not released up to 50 per cent in any financial year.

Constituting the NDDC board has been a sticky affair with the commission having to operate without a board for many years. The management is also routinely dissolved and reconstituted. Some of the states represented in the commission cry of marginalisation and discrimination. Up till today, the report of the recent forensic audit carried out in the commission has not been made public. What assurances have we that similar malaise will not plague the three new ones established after it?

I say with certitude that North-Central and South-West will demand and get their own development commissions as a matter of right. North-Central states can easily claim the humongous losses they have been incurring as a result of herders –farmers conflict in the Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa and the banditry in Niger among others as the reason for demanding a development commission. The South-West will also have justifiable reasons to demand a development commission. After all, the states in the region have also been suffering from insecurity, lack of social amenities and ecological challenges. As the saying goes, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Since other geo-political zones are copying from the Niger Delta region, I hope they will not also make a special demand for the creation of federal ministries in addition to the development commissions they have been granted. Remember that in addition to the establishment of the NDDC, the Federal Government still went on to establish the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. I hope we will not one day see the establishment of the ministries of North East, North West, South East, South West and North Central Affairs.

Nigeria is a paradox. I learnt through the July 26, 2024 editorial of this newspaper that the government operates over 1,300 MDAs, including foreign missions, which are not properly funded.  We’re complaining of the snowballing cost of running government which is why Tinubu has asked for the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye report on mergers and acquisitions of MDAs. Why then is the same president choosing to create additional bureaucracies with reckless abandon? Just a couple of weeks ago, the president announced the establishment of the Ministry of Livestock Development. Last year, he established the Ministry of Steel Development, Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Ministry of Arts and Creative Economy, Ministry of Tourism, amongst others. Now, in one fell swoop, he has established two new development commissions. Is this how to run a lean and smart government? As if that is not bad enough, our National Assembly keeps establishing new tertiary institutions – colleges of education, polytechnics and universities.

Meanwhile, it is not as if the country is economically buoyant or solvent. This newspaper in its earlier referenced July 26, 2024 editorial said, “The Debt Management Office stated that the country’s total public debt has increased significantly to N121.67 trillion (approximately $91.46 billion) as of March, up from N97.34 trillion in December. This rise is attributed to new borrowings to fund the 2024 budget deficit and the securitisation of a portion of the N7.3 trillion Ways and Means Advances with the CBN. The debt-to-GDP ratio surpassed 50 per cent for the first time since 1991.” It went further, “A recent report by PwC Nigeria projected that debt service could rise from N8.25 trillion in 2024 to N9.3 trillion in 2025 and N11.1 trillion in 2026, which may affect the country’s debt servicing ability, credit rating outlook, and borrowing cost.”

As I said on News Hub, a morning show on Silverbird TV last Thursday, July 25, 2024, I do hope these newly established development commissions will be well resourced in order to make them efficient and effective. In addition, they should not be mere contracting centres, awarding big contracts without cash backing. There must be accountability and transparency in the finances and operations of these new commissions. Competent people should be recruited to run the commissions while any reported case of corrupt practice should be thoroughly investigated and culprits prosecuted in court. Meanwhile, it is high time the six geo-political zones were recognised by the 1999 Constitution since they have become administrative structures even though they do not have elected administrators like the states.