By Haruna Salami
A Bill for an Act to establish North Central Development Commission, NCDC, passed second reading on the floor of Nigerian Senate on Thursday.
The bill sponsored by Senator Abba Moro (Benue South), came barely two years after the North East Development Commission, NEDC, was established by the Federal Government and barely 24 hours after the Bill for establishment of North West Development Commission, NWDC, passed second reading at the Senate.
The NCDC bill seeks to establish a commission responsible for receiving and managing funds allocated by the Federal Government, local and international donors “for the resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of roads, houses, farmlands and business premises affected by flood, erosion and farmer/herder clashes, construction of large format drainage systems, dredging of Rivers, Benue and Niger to control flood, erosion and other incidental matters, as well as tackling the menace of poverty, illiteracy and other related environmental and developmental challenges in the North Central zone of Nigeria”.
The NCDC Bill, when passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, “will alleviate the devastating conditions of the 6 states of the North Central zone: Kogi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Benue and the FCT, Abuja, which were ravaged by natural disasters and insurgencies”, Moro said.
While leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, on Thursday, Moro said, “the North Central Zone of Nigeria has been devastated and left in bollix by the noxious antics of terrorists, incidents of flood and erosion, insurgency, herder/ farmer clashes, poverty, high rate of illiteracy, to mention but a few”.
According to him, despite being blessed with several mineral resources, including Rivers Benue and Niger, that could boost the economy of the country, the zone had remained handicapped in terms of development.
Moro posited that hundreds of acres of farmlands are damaged in the North Central Zone, where the people are largely agrarian; saying farmers in Agatu, Benue State and all other states in the zone continued to lose their crops and farmlands to flood and erosion.
“It is no longer news that over the years, herder/farmer clashes in North Central Nigeria, especially in Benue state, have continuously made headlines.
Consequently, infrastructures ranging from places of worship, roads, hospitals, schools, houses, recreational centers, etc, have been left tattered, shattered and pierced by bullets.
“Women, children, pregnant women and in fact, the entire population is a victim of the atrocities perpetrated by suspected herders in the North Central zone of Nigeria.
“Even animals and the environment are not spared the chaos and conundrum impacted on the North Central Zone of Nigeria by the perpetrators of these unwholesome acts”, Moro added.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who presided over Thursday’s plenary, referred the Bill to the Committee on Establishment for further legislative actions, after it scaled through second reading.
