Re: No Need for NEDC

The editorial of Daily Trust of Friday 20th May, 2016 may have been done in good faith; however, the reasons given for not needing the North East Development Commission (NEDC) are certainly not cogent enough. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) may have been turned into a ‘goldmine which awards bogus contracts for which money […]

The editorial of Daily Trust of Friday 20th May, 2016 may have been done in good faith; however, the reasons given for not needing the North East Development Commission (NEDC) are certainly not cogent enough.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) may have been turned into a ‘goldmine which awards bogus contracts for which money is collected only for the work to abandoned’, that does not automatically translate or mean that the same thing will obtain when the NEDC is created.
Presumably, the thinking behind the creation of the NDDC was informed by the environmental devastation of the Region which was a way of both arresting the continued degradation by the activities of oil Companies and accelerating the development of the Region. The elites and leadership of the Region seem to have decided that keeping the Region the way it is(devastated) is the only way for them to keep the ‘bargaining power’ in their fight against the Federal government for resource control. Thus, as long as the Region remains environmentally devastated,  they will continue to hold the Federal government to ransom, make money and tell their people that the funds for the development of their Region is either not enough or not forthcoming. Better still, they will always claim that the North is being developed using their resources. By so doing they pitch their people against the hapless North.
With the relatively meagre resources allocated to the North, the elites ‘take’ what they can and commit what they will to what we see as development. Regrettably, what we see in our Region in terms of development is far better than what obtains in the Niger Delta even though far more resources are being committed from three different Federal Government channels to the same Region.
The Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs, the Niger Delta Development Commission and the thirteen percent derivation are all ways of allocating resources to the Niger Delta ostensibly to ameliorate the environmental disaster visited on the Region by the oil exploration in that area. That is not including the amnesty programme initiated by the Yar ’Adua administration which was to take away any reasons for the Region’s violence and destructive campaign.
That all these are geared towards only one Region and yet there is no commensurate development or secession of violence only goes further to show that the leadership of the Niger Delta are only interested in the resources accruing to them rather than the development of the Region.
It will therefore be grossly unfair, cruel and unjust to lump the quest for a North East Development Commission with the inadequacies of the NDDC as a pretext to scuttle or deny the devastated North East a chance to be brought back to the world as it were.
The argument by the Daily Trust that Federal, State and Local Governments and their agencies are well placed to carry out all the needed rehabilitation; resettlement and construction work is both insincere and naive. The different agencies for the Niger Delta were created at different times. If the argument by the Daily Trust were tangible, same could have been proffered at any of the times prior to the setting up of any of the agencies. The monies accruing to the agencies may have been channeled to the existing Federal, States and Local governments. That did not happen.
As things stand there is need for a North East Development Commission to pool resources together and focus on the development of the North East Region. The Victims Support Fund, the pledge by Dangote and other donor agencies need to know how and where their donations and pledges are going to be utilized. Resources can better be tracked and monitored through a single agency rather than a myriad of agencies. Hence a Commission will have a blueprint for the development of the Region and its needs as it relates to the destruction visited on it by Boko Haram. Federal, States, Local governments and their agencies will continue to function as they should. A Commission will facilitate, channel and direct resources for the immediate and sustainable growth of the Region. Like the Niger Delta, the environment has equally been destroyed in the North East. More importantly, however, the human psyche has been shattered. Bringing back these people to normalcy requires more than what government agencies can provide after being witnesses to the wanton massacre of their loved ones. Moreover, many of those expected to man the government agencies have been killed, displaced and/or traumatized.
Many factors, particularly the failure of leadership, have contributed to the catastrophe of Boko Haram. Resources that were expected to be used in fighting the insurgency were criminally diverted with the active connivance of some from the North, even the North East. Some might want to think a Commission is just another channel to make some more money and thus the lack of need for it. Now, if a new leadership does not take the initiative to accelerate the restoration of the Region and it stretches too far, succeeding leadership which has not been a witness to the event may begin to think that the whole issue is exaggerated and the needed accelerated rehabilitation will be unnecessarily stalled. A Commission is a clear signal that the destruction is of catastrophic proportion and nothing less can immediately address it.
The North East Development Commission cannot and will not go the way of the NDDC, even if it means giving the Commission a life span within which to operate,  achieve some set objectives and wind up, like the Petroleum Trust Fund even though it was not intended to be so.

Misau, wrote this piece from Bauchi. He can be reached at [email protected]