Opinion: The need to establish North Central development commission

By Nathaniel Usha Nongu

In recent years leading up to Two thousand and eighteen, the North Central geo-political zone of Nigeria has been brutally ravaged and thrown into dilapidation, due to persistent attacks by armed herdsmen.

These attacks claim scores of human lives, with property worth billions of Naira destroyed and many people displaced from their ancestral homes, creating severe humanitarian crises, with thousands of persons taking refuge in internally displaced persons camps across the zone.

Available records indicate that Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara and Niger States, as well as parts of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja that make up the North Central geo-political entity, have experienced callous attacks by the herdsmen.

Consequence of these attacks is the menace of poverty, illiteracy, ecological problems and a rapid decline in the socio-economic progress and development, which need to be sufficiently addressed by the Federal Government in order to cushion the multiplier effect.

In Benue State for instance, between Two thousand and eleven and Two thousand and seventeen, more than forty-seven deadly attacks were recorded in the State, with over one thousand eight hundred persons massacred in cold blood across fourteen local Government Areas of the State.

Records also show that over ninety-nine thousand households were attacked, with at least seven hundred and fifty persons inflicted with varying degrees of injuries, while two hundred persons were missing.

As the wave of these attacks lingered, avoidable humanitarian crisis have been created thereby over stretching the lean resources of the various States Governments.

Even though the National Emergency Management Agency, intervened by distributing some relief materials to the internally displaced persons, this however had been grossly inadequate to alleviate the colossal humanitarian crises and development challenges these dastardly attacks created.

As soothing as the promise of the Federal Government’s Committee on Displaced People headed by Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to assist in rebuilding homes destroyed in the attacks by the herdsmen is, the promise is however yet to be fulfilled.

We recall that the Federal Government through an Act of the National Assembly established the Niger Delta Development Commission in the year Two thousand as an intervention in genuine response to the restiveness in the South-South region. Similarly, the North East Development Commission law was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari on October twenty-fifth, Two thousand and seventeen.

The two agencies established by the Federal Government are saddled with the responsibility of tackling the socio-economic deficits which arose as a result of the upheavals and devastation experienced in the two zones following militant insurgencies.

Given the unimaginable havoc unleashed by the herdsmen insurgents on the socio-economic wellbeing of the North Central zone, there is the need for the Federal Government to balance the equation, by enacting a law through the National Assembly, establishing a North Central Development Commission in order to rehabilitate the socially and economically ravaged communities of the Middle Belt region.

The primary and secondary schools, churches, mosques and healthcare centres as well as other public facilities destroyed in several communities of North Central zone, should be rebuilt for use again in order to make life more bearable for the citizens of these communities.

To also bring succour to the victims of attacks across the Middle Belt region only a Development Commission, will sufficiently address the colossal socio-economic deficit that is currently being experienced in the zone, as a result of wanton destruction of property and massive killing of people by the herdsmen.

It is important to point out here that the North Central geo-political zone, has significantly contributed in keeping and maintaining the national unity of Nigeria. It will therefore be a grave injustice for the Federal Government of Nigeria to neglect the zone in this predicament, knowing that a dislocation in the socio-economic and political life of the North Central zone will have a dire effect on the nation.

We call on the National Assembly to enact a law establishing a North Central Development Commission, which will be saddled with the responsibility of, among other things, receiving and managing funds allocated by the Federal Government and international donors, for compensation, resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of roads, houses, and business premises of victims of the herdsmen insurgency, which will ultimately tackle the menace of poverty, illiteracy, ecological problems and any other related environmental or developmental challenges in the North Central region of the country.