Home NEWS EDUCATION Don’t Mismanage Resources Of New North East Commission – Speaker Dogara

Don’t Mismanage Resources Of New North East Commission – Speaker Dogara

Dogara spokesman Iliyasu ZwalSpeaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has cautioned stakeholders from the North East geo-political zone not to mismanage the resources that would be made available for the newly created North East Development Commission (NEDC).

Dogara advised the people of the region to justify the trust reposed in them by the President and members of the National Assembly from the rest of the country who unanimously supported the passage of the NEDC bill in the two chambers.

The speaker who spoke when receiving in audience, a delegation from  Bama Emirate Council, Borno State, led by his royal highness, the Shehu of Bama, Alhaji Shehu Kyari Umar Ibn Ibrahim El-Kanemi, said that the North East has suffered devastation that will take decades to rebuild, hence the need for a precise and confirmed law that can provide the legal backing for its recovery.

The Speaker advised elders and stakeholders to unite in ensuring that the objective of the NEDC Act is fully achieved, even as he also advised that there should be a consciousness among everyone in the region that its purpose cannot be abused so as not to break the trust that Nigerians.

Dogara explained the rationale behind the creation of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), saying that the decision was reached after careful consideration on the best tool to employ for the long run rehabilitation, reconstruction and rebuilding of the North East region.

According to him, the decision to make a law was chosen as the best since it can outlive any administration, unlike in the case of policies or other similar adhoc interventions.

“As true leaders and representatives of the zone, our true focus has been what we can do in order to ensure that we build on the successes that this government is recording in its fight against terrorism and ultimately  to ensure that we do not have a relapse in that zone with this kind of situation we have found ourselves. The region is behind in all human development indices and  businesses, factories, schools have been destroyed. I think as we speak, perhaps the only productive enterprise that we have in the north east is Ashaka Cement.

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“So from day one when we started meeting, our thinking was how we can ensure that whatever policies are developed by government aimed at tackling the myriad of challenges facing us as a zone are those that will survive whoever is President now.  It became clear to us that if we leave everything at the level of policy, granted that we have a President now that support and loves our people, he will not continue to be there forever. But the truth is that the level of devastation occasioned by this insurgency is such that it is going to take us decades to recover from. If you were to quantify the infrastructure, wealth and everything that we have lost, we will be talking about trillions. So you can imagine in terms of national budget, where are we going to get these trillions to channel to the north east? In the next 10, 20 years it is not possible. So even to recover what we have lost, we are talking about decades, not even years.

“So that is why as skillful legislators, we decided that we will go for NEDC. A lot of people thought it was not necessary, some even thought we wanted to create a pool, like an oasis of prosperity in the desert so that some few privileged sons and daughters in the region can just mismanage the resources.

“If these interventions are left at the level of policies, any subsequent government that comes that doesn’t love our people that much will with a stroke of pen just strike out the policy and that is the end. So, the thinking was if we take this to the level of a law, then any future government that seeks to reverse this will have to first come and lobby members of the National Assembly for them to repeal that law.” [myad]