Unless graft is addressed, regional devt commissions won’t work, HURIWA says

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has warned that the creation of regional development commissions will not make any impact without dealing with corruption.

The group expressed shock that politicians and contractors are inundating the media spaces with congratulatory messages to the President over the establishment of regional development Commissions, especially the South East Development Commission.

HURIWA also charged citizens of different geopolitical zones that now have regional development commissions to put in place observation and monitoring mechanisms.

According to the rights body, this is for effective citizens’-led checks and balances required to ensure that bureaucracies and authorities that superintend over the regional commissions operate within the bounds of the law, adhering strictly to the principles of transparency, accountability and zero-tolerance to corruption.

The rights body, in a statement, yesterday, by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, cited the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) that was set up many years ago to address infrastructural deficits in the crude oil producing communities and remediate the devastated environment polluted by activities of international crude oil companies operating in the region.

According to the group, the NDDC has sadly turned out as a money guzzling machine, and the cash making machines for politicians in the corridors of power over the years, while the communities are grossly underdeveloped, even as the majority of the people wallow in absolute poverty.

Onwubiko recalled that last week, President Bola Tinubu signed into law, two bills to achieve what the government perceives as the acceleration of development in North West and South East geo-political zones.

Presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement issued Wednesday last week, listed the bills assented to by the President to include North-West Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024, and the South-East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2023.

Ngelale said: “The North-West Development Commission is set up to facilitate the reconstruction of roads, houses, and business premises destroyed by multidimensional crises, as well as tackle poverty, literacy level, ecological problems and other related environmental or development challenges in North-West states.

“In addition, the South-East Development Commission is established to ensure the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses, and other infrastructural damages suffered by the zone, as well as tackle ecological problems, and other related environmental or developmental challenges in South-East states.

“The President believes in building the nation on the fulcrum of fairness, equity, and unity; hence, he is committed to ensuring equitable development, inclusive governance, and the provision of qualitative services to all Nigerians no matter where they reside, while knitting even more tightly together the national fabric.”