Chairman, Security, Climate Change, and Special Interventions Committee on the Governing Board of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Rep. Sam Ifeanyi Onuigbo, has said that the President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu GCFR, deserves special thanks for empaneling the South East Development Commission (SEDC).
Onuigbo also commended the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, for his dogged pursuit of the legislation from its sponsorship to passage by both chambers of the National Assembly.
He noted that by expeditiously assenting to the bill for the creation of SEDC after its checkered passage by the 10th National Assembly, the President did what other Nigerian leaders before him could not do.
In a statement made available to the media in Abuja, Onuigbo, who represents the South-East geopolitical zone in the Governing Board of NEDC, remarked that the SEDC has unique and specialized roles to play and promises to fulfill for the region after the intense devastations of the civil war.
He declared that the South East interventionist commission was coming more than 54 years after a proclamation to address the promises of the triple Rs- Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and Reintegration–which were virtually abandoned by successive military and civilian administrations.
Onuigbo, who served two terms as the representative of Ikwuano/Umuahia North and Umuahia South Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, remarked that as a man of history, President Tinubu has touched a sensitive nerve to heal deep-seated wounds of the past.
He stated: “In all honesty, President Tinubu deserves special thanks from the people of South East, because for more than half a century, the scars of the civil war remained with us in terms of infrastructure despoliation, social disconnection and economic tribulation.
“By signing the South East Development Commission establishment bill into law and following it up with the constitution of its members, the President has equipped the commission to intervene in a special way to address the wounds of the past through psychological healing.
“The SEDC has come to remove the nagging feelings of distrust and socio-economic marginalization among the people of the South East. For rising to this historical challenge, special thanks should go to President Tinubu.”
He therefore charged the pioneer members of SEDC to work extra hard with uncommon unity of purpose to lay a solid foundation for the commission by achieving great milestones, even as he urged the members to do all in their powers to reenact the past global rating of South East as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Onuigbo, who sponsored Nigeria’s landmark legislation on Climate Change in the 9th National Assembly, said the leadership and members of the 10th National Assembly equally deserve a pat in the back for rolling out the SEDC law.
He stressed that the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, succeeded in writing his name in gold by that momentous legislation, adding that the ball is now in the court of the members of the SEDC to live up to the great expectations of the enabling law.
“As one who sponsored the Climate Change Act 2021, I know the rigours, hurdles, and challenges of working any piece of impactful legislation through the various processes up to the signing stage. On this score, Rt. Hon. Ben Kalu has justified his position as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and as a focused leader.
“In the same vein, my appeal goes to the leaders, stakeholders, Ndigbo at home and in the Diaspora, and residents in the South-East geopolitical zone to join hands and support the Emeka Wogu-led members of the Governing Board of the commission to succeed. The success of the commission would be the greatest sign of the show of appreciation to President Tinubu for breaking the jinx and delivering this historic gesture.
“Coming at a time when Nigeria’s independence national anthem has been reinstated, the people of South East can now boldly sing and believe that the journey to building a nation, ‘where no one is oppressed,’ has begun,” Onuigbo declared.
It could be recalled that although the idea of a South East Development Commission was mooted in the life of the 6th National Assembly, the bill suffered many dislocations in the 8th and 9th Assemblies until Hon. Ben Kalu and other lawmakers rallied to its passage and eventual signing into law by President Bola Tinubu in July 2024.
The President recently forwarded the names of members of the SEDC, to be headed by the former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Emeka Wogu, to the Senate for screening and possible confirmation.
According to the establishment Act, the Commission is charged with the responsibility of, among other things, “to receive and manage funds from allocations of the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses and other infrastructural damages suffered by the region” during the civil war, as well as tackle the ecological problems and other related environmental cum developmental challenges in the South-East states.
