In the Nigerian Senate on Thursday, a bill creating the South South Development Commission won second reading.
The proposed Commission “was meant to receive and manage funds from the Federation Account Allocation and other sources, donations, aids, grants for integration, development, resolution of infrastructural deficit, militancy, communal crises as well as tackle ecological, environmental problems; and for related matters,” according to the bill sponsored by Senator Ekpeyong Asuquo (Cross River South).
Legislation pertaining to five additional geopolitical zones has been ratified.
During his bill speech, Bayelsa Central Senator Seriake Dickson insisted that the South South Development Commission would develop the area if it was passed.
He asserts that, in terms of developmental tasks, the Niger Development Commission and the South South Development Commission are very different from one another, despite some Senators drawing such comparisons.
He claimed that because only oil-producing states were eligible to receive particular percentages of oil production, the NDDC was a resource-based commission. He claims that not every South Carolina state is profiting from the NDDC.
He said: “The NDDC is a resource based Commission and that is the reason OMPADEC was scrapped and replaced with NDDC. It is interesting to note that Ondo in South West, and Imo and Abia in South East, are beneficiaries of NDDC despite not being South South States.
“States in the North Central have the North Central Development Commission, despite having HYPADEC because they have water bodies generating electricity.
“The South South Development Commission is created based on geopolitical zones and I plead that senators should support this bill as it is often said, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
“Also not all states in the South South region are benefitting from NDDC. For instance Cross River did not get anything after the court judgment some time ago, but if there is a geopolitically based Commission, they would get something.”
Using Seriake Dickson’s explanation of the distinctions between the South South Development Commission and the NDDC, Senators Suleman Kawu of Kano South and Enyinnaya Abaribe of Abia South backed the bill.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, praised senators from other geopolitical zones for their understanding and complimented the bill’s sponsor for their forethought in his remarks.
By voice voting, the bill was approved for a second reading and was forwarded to the Senate Committee on Special Duties.
