North East Development Commission Bill Suffers Major Setback..
Senator Abdulazeez Nyako, chairman committee on special duties The Senate on Tuesday, June 14 were divided over the report of the committee on special duties on the North East Development Commission bill.
The bill seeking to establish the North East Development Commission suffered a major set back as senators disagreed over the location of its corporate headquarters.
Abdulazeez Nyako, the chairman of the Senate committee on special duties, while presenting the report on the bill which went through first reading last year failed to clearly define its source of funding as well as location of its headquarters.
Senate Leader, Ali Ndume and Senator Usman Nafada representing Gombe North senatorial district amongst others from the North-east zone disagreed on the location of the headquarters of the proposed NEDC.
Nafada lobbied for the headquarters to be in Gombe state being the central state of the North east. “When you are talking about headquarters, i wonder why some people are talking about Maiduguri. “You can say Lagos is the headquarters because it used to be in Lagos. Maiduguri and Gombe have the same status now. “This commission is not a military commission so you cannot say there is airforce in Maiduguri or Bauchi. That is irrelevant to this bill.
Gombe is the centre of the North East,” he said. In his ruling, Senate President Bukola Saraki, mandated the six-man committee to strive to reconcile the contending issues in the report so as to ensure its smooth passage. He moved for the consideration of the report to be stood down to allow the committee to do its work and present it on another legislative day. “Out f 26 clauses, two clauses are clearly issues of comments which are the sites and issue of funding.
“Let us give another chance on the issue of funding on site and funding. I suggest that because it is a national matter, we take one senator from each of the geo-political zones to look at the matter including the two chairmen which are Paulker and Nyako,” he said.
Members of the committee which is expected to report back in one week are senators Sam Egwu, Emmanuel Paulker, Abdulazeez Nyako, Aliu Wamako, Dino Melaye and Tayo Alaosadura. The bill has already passed first and second reading in both chambers of the National Assembly. It was first presented for first reading on November 15, was sponsored by the Speaker of the House of representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who stepped down from the chair to lead debate on the bill.
