SOUTH EAST DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION BILL TO BE TRANSMITTED TO PRESIDENT TINUBU FOR ASSENT-DEPUTY SPEAKER 22-05-24
By Sadiq Aminu The Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Benjamin Kalu, has revealed that the South East Development Commission Bill that recently passed through third reading respectively in the Green Chambers and the Senate will soon be ready for onward transmission to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his assent.
The Deputy Speaker made the revelation when he received the Directors of Institute for Peace, Security and Development Studies of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka led by their Co-Chairman, Chief Chikwe Udensi on a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja.
Mr. Kalu said that the bill was an advocacy of Peace In South East Project (PISE-P), to help in solving the infrastructural challenges in the region 53 years after the civil war.
He said that the bill is presently at the
Conference Committee stage for the concurrence of both chambers of national assembly on its sections and provisions.
The Deputy Speaker appreciated the Institute for opting to synergize with PISE-P, an initiative birthed by him and other members of the National Assembly from the South East that calls for a non kinetic way of handling the insecurity in the region.
The deputy speaker decried the rate of fatalities arising from incidences of insecurity in the zone, saying that the bill aims at creating jobs and healing the wounds of the past.
He said: “In my private studies and others conducted by the team around me, we discovered that, the kinetic approach, in isolation of non kinetic mechanisms, was not delivering the expected deliverables of this engagement. Call it operation Egwueke or Lion or whatever you call it, wasn’t delivering; yet, Nigeria was spending so much money making those operations alive to the detriment of the blood of our citizens on the streets.
Mr. Kalu further charged the Institute to evolve practical ways of working to find lasting solutions to the problem of insecurity while also de-radicalizing those carrying weapons in the region.
Earlier in his presentation, the Co-Chairman of the Institute, Chief Chikwe Udensi said their mission to the House was essentially to collaborate with the deputy speaker in his unwavering commitment towards achieving peace in the south east.