Lawmakers yesterday solicited the support of governors and other stakeholders in the North-east region for the establishment of North-east Development Commission (NEDCOM).
This is to enable
for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Boko Haram ravaged
sub-region, and to assist in the return of 2.8 million internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in the area to their communities this year.
The call for the
support was followed by Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima's
declaration that the troubled sub-region had suffered destruction
estimated at N1.782 trillion ($9 billion).
Leading some
members of the House of Representatives to Maiduguri on a courtesy call
on Governor Shettima, Hon. Mohammed Monguno, representing
Monguno/Marte/Nganzai federal constituency said the region needs a
development commission to address the damage caused by insurgency.
He lamented that
the region was nearly brought to its knees as a result of Boko Haram
insurgency that has lasted for over six years now.
Mongumo said: "All
these antecedent problems both social and economic and otherwise that
have been brought to this sub-region, can only be overcome by
establishing a commission like the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC).
Monguno said the
commission would be statutorily charged with the responsibilities of
handling the developmental challenges of the Northeast occasioned by the
Boko Haram insurgency.
He reiterated that:
"There is the need for a masterplan for the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of the North-east. And the only way; we can achieve that
objective is by establishing the North-east Development Commission along
the modem of NNDC.
"Funds are going to be specifically earmarked for the purpose of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North-east."
The lawmaker said
it was against this background that the Speaker of the House of
Representatives sponsored the bill which brought unanimous support in
the House.
He explained that
the bill had passed the first and second reading, adding that it has now
got to the representative committees of the two chambers awaiting
public hearing.
"As a result of
that, we decided to come out and solicit for the support and
understanding of our leaders so that they can extend their hands of
fellowship to establish the commission," said Monguno.
He said as Shettima
is the chairman of 19 Northern Governors' Forum, urging him to talk to
his colleagues in the country to support the objectives of NEDCOM, as
Borno State in the epicenter of Boko Haram insurgency.
Responding,
Shettima said if the legislators could pass the NEDCOM bill, they would
have achieved more than 50 percent of what the people have elected them
to do at the National Assembly; as far those in the Northeast are
concerned.
He noted that Boko
Haram had brought the political leadership of the North-east together
for the first time in a long time, saying: "If there is one thing the
Boko Haram has forced us to do as a region is that for the very first
time since 1999, leaders in the North-east have set aside political and
ethno-religious differences to fuse into one entity for the purpose of
pursuing a course that is purely developmental with absolutely nothing
to do with politics."
He lamented that
the sub-region has suffered destructions worth $9 billion; which is
about N3 trillion based on parallel market exchange rate.
Shettima said: "The
North-east Development Commission is an idea whose time has come and
whose time is now. Nothing stops an idea whose time it is."
He said even in the
most ordinary of times which was before the Boko Haram insurgency, the
North-east geo-political zone was already the most backward in all
indices of development.
On federal
government deprivation of North-east with infrastructural and health
facilities, Shettima said: "According to a 2014 World Bank report,
two-thirds of the world's poorest people live in India, China,
Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo where there are citizens that live on less than one dollar per day.
"In Nigeria, which
is one of the five countries, the Human Development Index report of 2013
identifies the Northeast as the poorest in the country where between
67% and 69% of the population live in abject poverty. Series of maternal
mortality index reports on Nigeria, places the North East Zone as
having the highest mortality rate of 1,549
deaths per 100,000
live births which is in very sharp contrast with what obtains in the
South West Zone that has the lowest mortality rate of 165 deaths per
100,000 live births."
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