Civil Rights Advocacy Group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed shock that politicians and contractors are inundating the media spaces with congratulatory messages to the President over the establishment of regional development Commissions and especially the South East development commission.

This is contained in a statement issued and signed by the Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator, Human Rights Writers Association,
HURIWA.

HURIWA also charged the citizens of the different geopolitical zones of the country that now have regional development Commissions to form observations and monitoring mechanisms for the effective citizens’-led checks and balances that are required to ensure that the bureaucracies and authorities that superintend over the regional or Zonal development Commissions operate within the bounds of the law and adhere strictly to the principles of transparency, accountability and zero-tolerance to corruption.

HURIWA cited the examples of the Niger Delta Development Commission that was set up many years back to abridge the widening spectres of infrastructural deficits in the crude oil producing communities and remediate the devastated environment polluted by the activities of international crude oil companies operating in the crude oil rich communities but sadly, the NDDC has turned out as a money guzzling machine and the cash making machines for politicians in the corridors of power over the years whilst the crude oil rich communities are grossly underdeveloped even as absolute poverty has spread amongst the majority of the citizens of those communities.

HURIWA in a press statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, recalled that last week, President Bola Tinubu signed into law two bills to achieve what the government perceives as the acceleration of development in North West and South East geo-political zones in the country.

Presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement issued Wednesday last week, listed the bills assented to by President Tinubu to include

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.

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, the Presidency had claimed.

HURIWA whilst addressing the issues of the expectations of most people in these geopolitical zones, stated that the best form of citizens oversights that could propel the pragmatic and infrastructural development of those zones is not just the mere setting up of the development Commissions but the immediate action by all and sundry who hail from those zones to keep watchful eyes on how the bureaucracies governing those regional development Commissions work and ensure that the people get the appropriate values for their money. “Let the youths of South East and North West endeavour to critical keep vigilant eyes over the operations of these regional development Commissions and must demand accountability and transparency.

“The youths of these zones shouldn’t let these development Commissions become cesspool of corruption, abandoned and failed contracts like what the NDDC has become. The youths shouldn’t let these development Commissions turn out like the North East development Commission that has failed to address the socio-economic afflictions of the millions of internally displaced persons who are citizens of the North East driven out of their devastated communities by boko haram terrorists over the past decade”.

“These development Commissions shouldn’t become another avenue for widespread cash bonanza for politicians and contractors or else the aim for setting them up is defeated. So, instead of rejoicing over the signing into law of the special regional development Commissions, the citizens should rather be activating efficient mechanisms to monitor the operation of these Commissions to ensure maximum benefits for the communities and the citizens,” HURIWA affirmed.