Chukwu David 
The Senate yesterday began the process to amend the North West and South East development commission Acts over the controversy surrounding positions of Managing Director and Chairman.
This came as the bill to establish the South South Development Commission passed second reading in the upper house. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele presented the amendment to the North West Development Commission Act 2024 and explained that the aim was to provide fair geopolitical representation in the Governing Board of the Commission.
He said the amendment is also aimed at reconciling the lacuna in the provisions relating to the appointment of the Chairman and the Managing Director of the Commission to ensure that the occupants of the positions do come from the same state or zone. He said it also aimed at subjecting the appointments to the confirmation of the Senate.
Bamidele said: “For effective representation, and in line with the principles of federal character, it is imperative that membership of the commission be extended to other geo-political zones of the country which would be in tandem with extant Acts, relating to the establishment of Federal Commissions.”
The lawyer gave similar reasons to justify the amendment to the South East Development Commission Act. After passing the bills for the second reading, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said that the proposed amendments to the Acts were very necessary for the smooth running of the commissions.
The sponsors of the bill to establish the South South Development Commission Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross River South) and Senator Seriake Dickson (PDP Bayelsa West) convinced their colleagues across party lines and geo-political zones to endorse the proposal. The debate on the bill to establish the commission was suspended in July after the majority of the legislators voted against it.
Dickson said the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) being mistaken to be in the mode of zonal development commissions is a resource-based Commission that cuts across South South. The former Bayelsa State governor said: “The NDDC is a resource-based commission meant to mitigate against environmental degradation caused by oil exploration across the oilproducing states and fast track their development.
“The states covered by NDDC cuts across South South, South East and South West, unlike zonal based commissions which the proposed South South Commission falls under.” Akpabio referred the legislative proposal to the Committee on Special Duties for further legislative input and to report back within one week.
