NEDC to end insurgency in the Northeast, says Dogara

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara who sponsored the North East Development Commission (NEDC) bill that was recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari spoke to reporters on how Nigeria’s troubled geopolitical zone would

Imperative of the commission F IRST of all, I will start by extending our sympathies, that is, of members of the House of Representatives, as well as those of members of our own caucus, over this very deadly crisis that has bedeviled our own section of this dear country. Let me also thank the press for their effort in highlighting the crisis and the security agencies for the very extraordinary sacrifices put in place in order to restore some sanity in our region. For us who are sons of the Northeast, we know our History very well, so we appreciate this gesture and we will not take it lightly. I commend Mr. President for signing the Bill into law. As I said before, this shows the level of the President’s sensitivity to the plight of the highly traumatised people of the North East.

From day one when we started meeting our thinking was how do we ensure that whatever policies that is developed by government that is aimed at tackling the millions of challenges facing us as a zone are policies that will survive whoever is formulating them. So it became clear to us that if we leave everything at the level of policies, granted that today we have a president that supports, loves and likes our people, chances are that he will not continue to be there forever. Not even chances, that is the reality.

Has insurgency ended?

As a matter of fact, the heat was becoming very close to our section of the Northeast, if not for the timely intervention that was brought, owing to the change of government in this country, and they were able to put these insurgents on their backtrack. With this progress made, some have said Boko Haram has been degraded, decapitated, some have said that they have even been defeated. But whatever the situation is, the most important thing is for our people to go back to where they belong. And then, for them to get hope in the environment where God has given us, they can continue to contend with destiny of life. That is what is important. The debate shouldn’t be about the degrading and decapitating of Boko Haram, but about the survivors, the IDPS and then rebuilding these communities, hopes that were shattered on account of terrorism.

On alleged marginalization of Northeast since the 1960s

As sons and daughters of the Northeast in the House, recently, we’ve been meeting and putting our heads together as true representatives of the zone to see what we can do. As

a matter of fact, these signs were there, it’s just that we didn’t notice them on time. It is true that for years in this country, the Northeast has always come last in terms of budgetary allocation. This is in spite of the fact that we face more challenges than others. And when it comes to development indices, we are the last in the country, but we didn’t pay attention. When the population curve was going up sharply and opportunity costs were nose-diving, we didn’t pay attention.

On whether poverty and deprivation was responsible for insurgency

I don’t know the correlation between violence and poverty, but I’ve seen that in societies where hope is lacking, there always seems to be tendencies of violence. Or where you find extreme poverty, the likelihood of violence is always there. I guess that was where we missed it. So as true believers and representatives of the zone, our focus has always been what is it that we can do so that we build on the successes that this government is gaining in its fight against terrorism? And ultimately, to ensure that we do not have a relapse in that zone, back into this kind of situation in which we find ourselves. Even those zero statistics of human development indices have been destroyed. Businesses, factories, I think as we speak, perhaps the only productive enterprise in the Northeast may be Ashaka Cement. I don’t know if we have any other factory employing people in the Northeast. Infrastructure is zero.

On funding of the proposed NEDC

The truth is that the level of devastation as a result of this insurgency is one that is going to take us decades to recover from. If you were to quantify the infrastructure, wealth and everything that we have lost, you’d be talking about trillions, then you can imagine in the national budget, where are we going to get allocation of trillions to the Northeast? Is it within the next ten or twenty years? To recover the things that we have lost will take us decades, not even a few years. So that was why as skillful legis- lators, we decided that we would go for the NEDC.

On whether the NEDC would end up like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which many believe, has failed to do deliver on its mandate

Yes, a lot of people thought it was not necessary, some even thought, well, we want to create a system that will be like a pool of prosperity in the desert so that a few privileged sons and daughters of the region will just mismanage the resources. And I know that even the president was watching us before signing this bill into law. But I guess that he saw the plight of the people and that he’s been told of the level of devastation in that region. And since these current efforts are not enough, and may never be enough to address the challenges, if these interventions are left at the level of policies, any subsequent government that comes

I don’t know the correlation between violence and poverty, but I’ve seen that in societies where hope is lacking, there always seems to be tendencies of violence. Or where you find extreme poverty, the likelihood of violence is always there. I guess that was where we missed it. So as true believers and representatives of the zone, our focus has always been what is it that we can do so that we build on the successes that this government is gaining in its fight against terrorism? And ultimately, to ensure that we do not have a relapse in that zone, back into this kind of situation in which we find ourselves.

and doesn’t love our people that much, will just with a stroke of a pen, strike the policy out, and that is the end. So the thinking was that if we could elevate this to the level of a law, then any future government that seeks to reverse it would have to face the members of the National Assembly. And because we have a voice, we will continue to have a voice in the National Assembly; it is going to be exceptionally difficult for that to be achieved. So we were making provisions for the long run, not for the short term. As a matter of fact, in some places where I have had to advocate for this commission, I have said the freedom for us to plan for ourselves, to manage the resources accruing to the zone is something, and we should be given that freedom. I should never be understood to be canvassing that we will mismanage resources given to us, but I said even if we do it, and we fail, a free man when he falls blames no one. We

will accept the blame that we have