The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has applauded the signing of the North West Development Commission (NWDC) bill into law by President Bola Tinubu, marking a significant step in addressing the longstanding neglect and devastation that the North-West region.
NEF in a statement by its director of publicity and advocacy, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman said the transformative initiative was aimed at rejuvenating the region which had suffered rampant banditry and criminal activities leading to the destruction of critical infrastructure and the displacement of millions of its people.
NEF also acknowledged the chronic stagnation in the development of the North-West and other parts of the northern region. Over the years, the development of the region has been neglected by successive administrations with activities of criminal gangs further exacerbating the situation, decimating health, education, and infrastructure systems, and creating a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented scale. The establishment of the NWDC offers a beacon of hope and a strategic opportunity to rebuild the North-West and instigate positive change, it said.
In another statement issued by the ACF signed by its national publicity secretary, Professor T.A Muhammad-Baba, the forum expressed confidence that the law would mark a new watershed in what would surely be a new lease of life for people of the geopolitical zone, while commending all those that made it a reality.
ACF also averred that the Northwest remains at the very bottom of all Nigeria’s developmental indices and living conditions, adding that it is also a region that had continued to be devastated by insecurity, banditry and associated challenges, and indeed forming the ground zero of insecurity and terrorism.
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