NWDC: A Magic Wand to Develop N’West

Godwin Ortserga writes on the essence of the bill for the establishment of North West Development Commission co-sponsored by Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin and 20 other Senators.

The North West Development Commission (NWDC) Bill, sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin and co-sponsored by 20 other Senators from the North-West geopolitical zone, scaled the second reading in the Senate, on Thursday, February 15, 2024, following a unanimous support, through a voice vote by all the senators present during the sitting.

As succinctly canvassed by Senator Barau in his lead debate at plenary, ‘the Bill seeks to provide for the establishment of North West Development Commission to act as a catalyst to develop the arrays of potentials of the North West as well as address the gap in infrastructural development of the region.’

The intent and vision of this Bill are very apt and compelling, especially, when juxtaposed with prevailing realities in a region ravaged by so many debilitating factors such as insurgency, banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and attendant general insecurity.

Explaining further, Senator Barau said: “The North West as a region has contributed immensely to the overall development of Nigeria in terms of Agriculture and other spheres of the country, yet the region remains hugely underdeveloped. What the region requires now from the Federal Government is support to develop its infrastructure and educate its teeming youths to drive the process of developing the zone in its entirety to grow at par with the more developed zones in the country.

“The infrastructure of the zone has been immensely destroyed by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents, armed bandits and kidnappers across the region leading to the exodus of investors, businessmen, managers of companies and employees. This destruction is having a major effect on the economy of the region as it has led to severe food shortages and unemployment in a region that has traditionally produced cash and food crops across the Sahel. Also, some parts of the region are currently facing the problem of desertification. All these have contributed to making agriculture and other economic activities suffer thereby creating more poverty in the zone.

“The Federal Government is in the right position to show concern in the face of the plethora of problems and challenges facing this geo-political zone by creating the North West Commission to appropriately address the developmental needs of the zone. ‘’

Senators across party lines and geopolitical zones were in total support of the passage of the Bill during the debate at plenary.

Leading the support for the bill, Senate Minority leader, Senator Abba Moro, said  “There is the need to accommodate this region as a developmental centre and that is what this bill seeks to achieve. As the world continues to modernize, there is an imperative need for all of us to agree that we must establish centres of development, the aggregation of which will lead to the overall development of the country.’’

Contributing, Senator Adamu Aliero submitted that “The North West geo-political zone has suffered a lot of devastation and destruction with the activities of Boko Haram and banditry. The North West has the largest number of out-of-school children. Nigeria is the only country in the world that has 20 million children out of school. We can’t afford this, and we can put these children in school so that we can develop their talents to enable them to contribute their quota to the development of their country.’’

According to him, the North West Commission if created, is not going to affect whatever the state governments are doing. Instead, it is going to complement their developmental efforts.

‘’ It will exist side by side with the state governments to develop the region. It will catalyze to accelerate the development of the zone and we have seen it in the North East where several projects executed by the North East Development Commission have helped tremendously in the development of the region and this has restored peace and stability relatively in that area.

“As the sponsor of the bill said, the North West has the largest population of about 70m in the country. Right now, so many industries are moving out of the North West because of insecurity and instability.

In Kano State, about 250 have moved out. In Kaduna, about 120 have moved out while in Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto States, we have lost about 200 factories. So, there is a mass exodus of investments out of the zone simply because of insecurity and instability.  We need to establish this commission to take care of development in the zone.”

On his part, Senator Gbenga Daniel concurred with the spirit of the Bill saying “I rise in solidarity to support this very important bill on the need for the establishment of NWDC. There is no doubt in our minds that the North West is a very important component of our country. Without a doubt, the most populous states in the country belong to the North West. We have no doubt therefore, that on account of population alone, it is clear that we need to bend over backwards and encourage anything that will bring further development to this important region.”

In supporting the Bill, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah averred “While supporting this bill, I will call on my colleagues to ensure that there is equity and fairness to all regions.”

In his summation of the debate on the Bill, President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, gave his nod saying “This is very straightforward. The North West is very large; the population is large; the need for development is obvious. The insecurity will be minimised if more development enters there and educational facilities are made more available. For us, development anywhere in this country is development everywhere.”

The establishment of special intervention bodies such as the  Nigeria Delta Development Commission and the North East Development Commission, were all in the spirit of accelerating the development of regions whose development was slowed down by some peculiar factors. The establishment of the North  West Development Commission will be fittingly, along this line.

-Ortserga, an Assistant Director at the National Assembly, writes from Abuja.