South-East Development Commission, Anticipated Projects, And Contractors.
By Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP.
Thursday (Afor) 23-01-2025.
The Civil War that was fought in Nigeria, ranging from 1966 when pogrom against Easterners started in the North of Nigeria, to January 15, 1970 when General Philip Effiong, Second in Command to the Head of the Biafran Republic, General Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, signed a treaty of surrender to Nigeria’s Military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, for many years, left the Igbo in a state of agony. None of all the promises of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction made by General Yakubu Gowon saw the light of the day.
Despite the fact the Igbo are very adventurous, ingenuous and enterprising, whoever that visits the Igbo in South-East Nigeria will observe signs of a People who have not recovered from a state of anarchy.
To start with, the South-East geo-political zone has only five States while the other five have six, with North-West having seven States. The South-East has the least number of Local Government Councils, and, of course, electoral wards.
Yet, by Nigeria’s peculiar system of federalism, national resources are shared using States and Local Government Council Areas as basis.
The most deplorable highways in Nigeria are found in the South-East. It is in the South-East that one notices check-points mounted by Nigerian Security Personnel on highways at short distant intervals, with drivers and passengers badly exploited, and often physically humiliated.
From the least imagined angle of expectation, help is flowing into the South-East. Immediate-past President, General Muhammadu Buhari, who described the South-East as a mere dot on a circle was categorical when he said or implied that the South-East that gave him only 5% of her votes should not expect much from his Administration. His eight years of Presidency were like a hell let loose on the South-East. As a deliberate policy, he made sure no Igbo Man was a Member of Nigeria’s Security Council.
Apart from during the Civil War, no other period was as hellish to the Igbo as Buhari’s regime, 2015-2023.
Though the Igbo did not give enough support to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, during 2023 Presidential election, as one of their Sons, Mr Peter Obi, was a frontrunner in the Election, President Tinubu has shown a lot of Statesmanship towards the Igbo. To begin with, he made sure an illustrious son of Igbo land, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, is the Chief of Naval Staff, and, therefore, a Member of the National Security Council. President Tinubu went ahead to appoint a versatile Igbo technocrat and former Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr Dave Umahi, as Honourable Minister of Works. A lot of infrastructural rehabilitation has been going on in the South-East, detailedly supervised by Engr Umahi.
No matter how independent the National Assembly could be, if the President had had any reason or reservation against an Igbo Man being the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu, CON, would not have been elected the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.
To crown his passion and disposition to the People of South-East, President Tinubu assented to the Bill, initiated by Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu in the House of Representatives, for the establishment of South-East Development Commission, SEDC. Chairman and Executive Directors of the Commission have already been nominated, and successfully screened by the Senate. At the convenience of Mr President, which is hoped will not exceed longer than necessary, they will be sworn-in and inaugurated.
The South-East Development Commission will be expected to function as a critical agency for a comprehensive economic recovery and development of the South-East Region, a Region that was devastated by war. The expectation will not be different from what former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in mind when he created Niger Delta Development Commission in December 2000.
For South-East Development Commission to achieve its objectives, there must be sound, efficient, transparent and effective management of the resources and personnel of the Commission.
In as much as the Commission was established to facilitate recovery by the Igbo of losses incurred during the Civil War, it would be unthinkable, absurd and unacceptable for any Igbo Man to feel that buildings and other properties lost during the war should be paid for by the Commission. Such losses have been borne and forgotten by Igbo People for more than fifty years.
The South-East Development Commission should learn from the bitter experience of the Niger Delta Development Commission, which initially was giving Mobilization Funds to her Contractors, a good number of who abandoned the projects for which they had been mobilized and absconded with such funds. This is the reason for too many abandoned contracts in NDDC States. South-East Development Commission should avoid the trap of paying mobilization funds to her potential contractors. It breeds corruption and ineffectiveness. It should not be tried.
The Board and Management of the South-East Development Commission must come up with a Blueprint on Development of the South-East Region. If it means getting the services of Development Economists in order to have a Development Plan for the Region, it could be a 50-Year Development Plan for the South-East, under the aegis of the Commission, for goodness sake, it would be a welcome development. As Premiers of Eastern Region, both Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr M. I. Okpara employed the services of Development Economists that worked assiduously to produce a Development Plan for the Region which was tenaciously implemented, and that was why in early January 1966, just before the Military Coup of January 15, Eastern Region of Nigeria was declared the fastest growing economy in the world.
Three areas of development should occupy the attention of the Commission, vis, (1) Urban and Rural Road Infrastructure, with emphasis on Rural Roads. Every Local Government Area in the South-East should be linked to its neighbouring Local Government Area, with every major market in the area as a targeted destination, (2) Electricity should be given a priority attention in the Region. No society develops beyond its scope of electricity. It is electricity that drives the industrial and economic growth of any society. With abundance of natural liquid gas in both Imo and Abia States, electricity should not constitute any hindrance to the Region’s Industrial and Economic Development, and (3)there should be maximum focus on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SME. There should be well and transparently managed Skill Acquisition Centres in each State of the Region. The essence should be to train the Region’s teeming Youths, including University Graduates, to acquire skills that can make them to become employers of labour, instead of the present situation in which they roam about endlessly in search of employment that hardly exists.
Investment in Agribusiness for the Youths of the Region should occupy a reasonable chunk of consideration for Agriculture. They should be trained in poultry, piggery, fishery, plantain farming, and so on.
By what President Tinubu has courageously done by guaranteeing direct financial allocations to the Local Government Councils in Nigeria, South-East Development Commission could, apart from having a progressive development understanding with the five State Governments, go into strategic partnership with willing progressive Local Government Councils on various areas of development.
It is hoped that with the quality of characters of the persons nominated by Mr President to lead the inaugural Board of South-East Development Commission, with Dr Emeka Wogu, Esq, at its helm, South-East Development Commission will certainly justify President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s thought that the Commission is, indeed, the needed elixir to the lost glory of the Igbo in Nigeria.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and writes from his native Asa land beautifully situated between Aba in Abia State and Port-Harcourt in Rivers State.
