Presidential Assent Delaying Regional Commissions’ Takeoff

The delay by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in assenting the development commission bills is delaying their take-off.

It was gathered that Tinubu has yet to assent to the bills over what insiders described as unresolved issues.

To this end, North Central and South-South Development Commissions might not take off, as the proposed organisations may not get allocations in the 2025 budget.

Both bills were passed into Law before the National Assembly went on recess shortly after President Tinubu presented the 2025 budget estimate to a joint national assembly session in December last year.

The national budget of N49.7 trillion enshrined in the 2025 Appropriation Bill will likely be passed into Law by the National Assembly shortly after the resumption.

However, while the Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast regions had funds of varied sums allocated to each for developmental projects, the Northcentral and Southsouth regions were left out.

Curiously, unlike the Northeast, Northwest, and Southeast, whose Bills were in place before the budget presentation, the Southwest Development Commission Bilm was allocated funds in the 2025 budget estimates before the president assented to them in early January this year.

“The whole issue is very confusing because from all indications, while others will be beneficiaries of the current budget, both Northcentral and South South will lose our due to unresolved issues around who gets what, where the headquarters of the commissions should be and other needless issues.

“This has primarily delayed assent that the president would have given to Bills because powerful forces and political stakeholders have not resolved among themselves, so no one should blame the president but those who have refused to agree to certain things”, the source said.

While the leaders of the South-South have not made any noticeable move, some stakeholders from the North Central have frowned at what they called the region’s “neglect,” especially in the distribution of funds to the various development commissions.

A breakdown of the N2.4 trillion budget for the Ministry of Regional Development, according to allocations to the five development commissions, is as follows: NDDC, N776.53 billion; NWDC, N585.93 billion; SWDC, N498.40 billion; SEDC, N341.27 billion, and NEDC, N291 billion.

Shortly after the budget presentation, the North-Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum cried out over the region’s exclusion from the N2.493 trillion allocated to regional development commissions in the proposed 2025 budget.

The Forum, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, in Abuja on Friday, said the absence of a regional development commission for the zone, which has made the region miss out on the N2.493 trillion budget, amounted to injustice and marginalisation.

Zazzaga, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 election, expressed concern that the absence of a development commission for the North-Central and its exclusion from the N2.4 trillion budget for the regional development commissions would negatively impact the region’s development.

He added: “The North-Central APC Forum is crying out over the shocking exclusion of the North-Central geopolitical zone from the N2.4 trillion allocated to the regional development commissions in the 2025 budget. The N2.4 trillion will fund capital projects and other developmental initiatives in five of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, excluding the North-Central.

“This injustice is unacceptable to the people of the North-Central, who deserve to be treated as equals to other Nigerians rather than being subjected to marginalisation and neglect.

“For us in the North-Central APC Forum, this is even more worrisome because in the last election, after the South-West, the North-Central was second in terms of the general acceptability of President Bola Tinubu.

“The North-Central worked hard to deliver the government, and we feel sad and disillusioned that we are being rewarded with neglect and marginalisation.”

“Also, it is on record that the North-Central is the first zone to endorse President Bola Tinubu for a second term because we believe in his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

“The exclusion of the North-Central region from the N2.4 trillion allocated to the other geopolitical zones, through the various regional development commissions, is a massive disappointment to the people of the zone, who believe so much in the APC-led Federal Government.

“Should the North-Central miss out from the budgetary allocations to the regions in the 2025 fiscal year, it would lead to an irrecoverable setback for the growth and development of the region,” he said.

However, as the North Central kicks off, there are strong indications that powerful political forces have yet to agree on specific fundamental issues.

In the South, for instance, it was gathered that the Senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and other stakeholders have not agreed on the proposed headquarters of the South-South Development Commission.

While Akpabio is pushing for Uyo, the Akwa Inom state capital, to host the commission, stakeholders of the old Bendel) Now, Edo and Delta have pushed for Asaba to be their headquarters.

A former governor leads the stakeholders from old Bendel from one of the two states. They have the support of the old Rivers State(Bayelsa and Rivers), which already has the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

In the case of Northcentral, the inability of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, and other political bigwigs to find common ground is delaying the presidential assent.

Akume, a former governor of Benue, still is pushing for Makurdi, the state capital, while the majority of stakeholders insist on Minna, the Niger state capital.