Ndume lauds assent to North East commission bill

Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), yesterday expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the North East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2017.

Ndume, who initiated the bill alongside other senators and House of Representatives members from the Northeast, described Buhari’s assent to the bill as a “timeless gift” for millions of people in the region.

As an institution backed by law, he said the commission would remain the biggest succour for people of the region because their lives would be rebuilt through its activities.

“The president has made my day by signing the bill into law. It’s a milestone in the history of my sojourn at the National Assembly. The bill is very necessary and timely because the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast is so humongous that a committee or whatever outside an institutional frame work would not be able to address the short and long term challenges posed by activities of insurgency,” he said.

The senator who also thanked members of the National Assembly from other parts of the country said their support would see to the restoration of normal life in the Northeast which is adjudged to be one of the poorest regions even before the advent of the Boko Haram crisis.

He said the commission, which has the mandate of receiving and utilizing budgetary allocations and support from national and donor agencies, would not be taken over by politicians.