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From Isaac Anumihe and Adline Elechi, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has instructed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, to ensure that all funds allocated to the North Central Region under the North Central Development Commission (NCDC) are released in a timely manner.
Declaring open the first North Central Stakeholders’ Development Summit in Abuja, the president, represented by the SGF, said that the government has continued to deal with such threats with vigour, determination and capacity.
“We have increased surveillance and intelligence gathering, established more formations, deployed more personnel, increased prosecution of criminals and supported engagement, dialogue and reconciliation,” he said.
According to him, the creation of Regional Development Commissions (RDCs) is part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Tinubu’s administration, which simply wants to increase the tempo of development in the country by filling the gaps that have existed over the years.
It is not an attempt to replace, duplicate or usurp the functions of any tier of government. Rather, it is our way of looking at why development gaps still exist and trying to close them up for the benefit of our people. The NCDC and its peers are not created to continue business as usual and doing the same thing others have done in the past.
“We expect that RDCs will focus on key development priorities that have the capacity to unlock the potential of the regions and at the same time provide interconnectivity for the whole country. We want to see major projects in roads, rail, air transportation, industrialisation, security, investment, human capital development, education and health and other sectors,” the president stated.
Also, the president warned the commission against wasting public funds, saying that the era of white elephant projects is over and there is no excuse for the commissions to become another conduit pipe for wasting public funds.
He noted that the Ministry of Regional Development must ensure that development commissions operate within the regional development policy document while the legislature carries out relevant oversight.
“Development must be about the people and not on paper.
“In managing these development commissions, the boards and management must ensure that they operate within extant laws and regulations, avoid all forms of corruption, shun tendencies for marginalisation, politicisation and ethnicising government operations. Such actions will not be tolerated and government will not hesitate to sanction anyone found culpable,” he warned.
In his speech, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of NCDC, Dr Cyril Yiltsen Tsenyil, submitted that the North Central sits at the heart of Nigeria’s economic geography, connecting northern and southern markets, hosting the nation’s capital, and blessed with agricultural land, water and mineral resources, a young population and a growing base of universities and enterprise.
“The NCDC was established by the North Central Development Commission (Establishment) Act, 2024, covering Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the FCT, with responsibilities spanning transportation, agriculture, security, entrepreneurship, industrialisation, employment, health, education, housing, water, electricity and telecommunications.
“But a mandate alone will not transform a region. Transformation will require vision, political will, private capital, technical competence, institutional co-operation, community participation and, above all, the discipline to think and act regionally,” he said.
Meanwhile, Honourable Timothy Golu, who sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives under the speakership of Yakubu Dogara, explained that although the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, did not sign the bill into law, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saw the need to sign, not only for the North East region but for other commissions.
