The North Central Development Commission (NCDC) was established to, among other objectives, address the growing insecurity and underdevelopment in the North Central region. Its birth, however, has raised both hopes and doubts regarding its capacity to solve decades-old problems that past administrations have ignored, AMEH OCHOJILA reports.

The North Central Development Commission (NCDC) Bill was signed into law early this year after strong lobbying from governors, lawmakers, civil society groups and traditional rulers from the geopolitical zone. It was not a gift from the Federal Government, but a response to pressure.

For many in the region, it represents an opportunity to rectify years of neglect, insecurity, and underdevelopment. At the inauguration of the commission, Minister of Regional Development Abubakar Momoh stated that the NCDC must prioritise agriculture, energy, roads, schools, healthcare, and social welfare. He also promised strict monitoring so that projects are not abandoned.

These promises notwithstanding, Nigerians remain cautious, as similar commissions, such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), have failed to deliver on their mandate due to corruption and poor management.

According to experts, the NCDC must show that it is different because it no doubt carries the collective aspirations of a region caught in the grip of historical marginalisation, festering insecurity, and unrealised potential.

The creation of the NCDC is, on the surface, a decisive gesture; one that acknowledges decades of regional neglect and growing call for equity in Nigeria’s developmental efforts.

The region’s political actors made the case clear when they pointed out that without targeted investment and structural reforms, the North Central zone risked sliding further into instability and economic paralysis.

In the words of Senator Abba Moro, a key driver of the bill, the commission must uphold constitutional equity and deliver regional inclusion, not just in law but in action.

In line with all these, at its formal launch, the Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, tasked the board with aligning its strategy with the administration’s economic reform agenda.

He highlighted the need to prioritise agriculture, energy, infrastructure, education, health, and social welfare, while emphasising accountability mechanisms through performance bonds, mirroring the one already signed between the ministry and the Presidency.

This pledge to oversight is vital, but it will need to be matched with demonstrable results and a clear break from the dysfunctionality seen in other regional development bodies.

Indeed, public trust remains a critical hurdle, especially as the country’s experience with commissions like the NDDC is sobering. Decades of mismanagement, inflated contracts, and elite capture have transformed what should have been engines of regional rebirth into cautionary tales of bureaucratic caution.

For the NCDC, the burden of proof is higher: citizens expect real-time transparency, project delivery, and an institutional culture that values inclusion over patronage.

The urgency of NCDC’s mission is underscored by the reality across the region where insecurity has become the defining feature of life in parts of Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, and Niger states. From farmer-herder clashes to communal violence and banditry, the zone has become a corridor of fear. The consequences are not merely social; they are economic and existential.

A recent study in Benue State revealed a direct correlation between rising insecurity and agricultural decline, with a one per cent increase in violence resulting in a measurable drop in both crop and livestock productivity. This is a region where livelihoods are not just threatened, they are vanishing.

It is for this reason that legal and policy experts such as Deji Ajare and Ajonye Omale have insisted that peace-building and security must be the commission’s non-negotiable priority.

While Ajare advocated the immediate formation of community-led peace and grazing committees in volatile areas, backed by funded local mediation initiatives, Omale, who reinforces this view, described security not as one agenda among many, but as the foundation upon which all development must stand. Without peace, they argue, no infrastructure can be sustained, no schools can stay open, and no economy can grow.
This emphasis on peace, they insist, must go hand in hand with hard infrastructure.

Both legal practitioners agree that the NCDC must tackle the region’s physical disrepair. From impassable feeder roads and collapsed bridges to derelict schools and under-equipped health centres, the state of infrastructure has hamstrung both economic activity and basic service delivery.

The rehabilitation of the region’s most strategic roads, particularly those connecting agricultural hubs to markets, could immediately boost rural productivity and reduce post-harvest losses, especially if implemented through local contractors to create employment opportunities.

Equally urgent is the need for an economic strategy that moves beyond emergency relief to long-term resilience. With abundant mineral resources such as tin, columbite, and iron ore, and vast arable land, the North Central zone is not poor; it is poorly managed.

Experts have proposed agro-processing clusters anchored on value chains like cassava, maize, and rice, as well as the revitalisation of local mining and inland water transport through the Niger and Benue rivers. This shift from extractive economics to value-added processing could serve as a foundation for sustainable industrial growth.

Technology and youth development present another pivotal opportunity. With cities like Makurdi, Jos, Minna, and Lokoja emerging as low-key tech hubs, the NCDC could play a catalytic role in accelerating digital innovation and entrepreneurship.

A digital-first approach, featuring smart development hubs and project dashboards, would not only improve transparency but also foster a data-driven development culture.

For the youth, short vocational programmes in agri-tech, solar energy, logistics, and coding could provide pathways out of unemployment and into the workforce of the future. But these will require robust partnerships with the private sector, funding pipelines, and long-term institutional commitment.

Social infrastructure cannot be sidelined. Education and healthcare are in crisis in many communities across the region. Development Experts like Victor Idajili argue that while economic infrastructure is important, the NCDC must equally invest in the human capital that underpins development. That means rehabilitating primary healthcare centres, deploying mobile clinics to displaced communities, training healthcare workers, and launching scholarship schemes in STEM fields.

For a region that is suffering not just from displacement, but from intergenerational poverty, these are not luxuries – they are necessities.
Critically, the commission must establish a new model of governance, one that places citizens at the centre. Digital tracking of projects, third-party audits, community feedback mechanisms, and publicly available performance dashboards could help bridge the trust deficit that plagues most public institutions in Nigeria. Without this, even the best-planned interventions will be greeted with suspicion or apathy.

There is also a political dimension that cannot be ignored. Appointments to the commission’s management will set the tone for its legitimacy.
According to observers, the inclusion of individuals with verifiable expertise and a track record of public service, rather than recycled political figures could help signal a serious intent to break with the past, with a leadership team seen as a blend of technocratic and grassroots credibility-led by Tsenyil Cyril Yiltsen and supported by notable figures like James Abel Uloko, and Princess Atika Ajanah among others, cautious hope and good team is beginning.

According to Idajili, research, and inclusive citizen involvement in projects is crucial. “The appointment, which reflects experts and technocrats with strong backgrounds in strategic research and communication, is highly significant,” he said.

Inclusive involvement of citizens in projects, he said, would be very significant, adding that experts and technocrats with clear strategy and communication skills as the management team would be of great significance.

While a director in the ministry of regional development, who would not want his name mentioned, cautioned against flooding the commission with all manner of persons who have no strategic experience, to avoid it being locked down like other commissions before it. He advised that experts should be drawn from the public and private sectors.

At this critical juncture, the NCDC stands on the edge of promise and peril. Its success could become a template for regional development in Nigeria, a model that combines economic modernisation with local ownership, institutional transparency, and social inclusion.

But failure could plunge the region deeper into crisis and further erode national faith in the idea of equitable federalism. The challenge is immense, but the opportunity is real. The NCDC must rise to meet that demand, not with rhetoric, but with results. Peace must be pursued not as an outcome, but as a precondition. Growth must be driven by both capital and community. Governance must be earned, not assumed. Only then can the NCDC transcend its predecessors and deliver a truly new dawn for the North Central.