North East Depression And Buhari’s Assent To It’s Development Commission (Establishment) Bill
The Oasis Reporters,
Friday, October 26, 2017
“According to the World Health
Organization, nine out of ten
newborn deaths are preventable.
In the category of the
Under 5 Mortality per 1,000.
North East zone : 269 children, North West zone : 260 children,
South West zone : 176 children
South East zone : 103 children.
Under Maternal Mortality Rate
(MMR) per 100,000,
North East : 1,549 women,
North West : 1,026 women,
South East : 286 women
South West 165 women”
~ Excerpt from NYAKO’S HEART OF DARKNESS by OGOO OKONKWO (2014)
Compelling reasons therefore for President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly assent to the bill for a region where he was once governor of the entire North East in 1976.
This is contained in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters – (Senate) Senator Ita Enang.
The Act establishes the North-East Development Commission with 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 as well as tackling the menace of poverty and environmental challenges of the area.
It provides for the offices of the chairman, Managing Director, Executive Director (Administration and Finance), Executive Director (Humanitarian Affairs), Executive Director (Operations) and members representing the North East Zone to be rotated amongst member states of the commission.
The commission will among other things: Coordinate projects and programmes within the Master Plan for the rehabilitation, resettlement, reconciliation, reconstruction and sustainable development of the North-East 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 stabilization and development of the North-East by the Federal Government.
. Assess and report on any project being funded or carried out in the North-East 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 utilized.
. 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 North-East Zone.
. Seek humanitarian, human, material, technical and financial support from Development partners (local or international) and Non-governmental organisations with a view to developing the North-East Zone.
. Co-ordinate civil-military confidence building and stabilization 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 Federal Government is involved with in the North-East Zone.
The statement said that the Act as Assented to has been communicated to appropriate Authorities.
Concerned Nigerians are in the hope that governors in the region would be alive to their responsibilities so as to change the depression in the region to development of human capacity, an area that they’ve often failed woefully at, considering all the development indices enumerated by global rating agencies.
Source :The Nation Nigeria
TheWill
