**South-South Development Commission Bill Scales  Second Reading

The Senate has commenced the process to amend the Northwest and Southeast Development Commission Acts, specifically addressing the allocation of Managing Director and Chairmanship positions.
Additionally, the Senate passed the South-South Development Commission Bill for second reading, further advancing efforts to establish the commission.

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, while presenting the amendments, explained that the proposed changes to the Northwest Development Commission Act, 2024, aim to ensure fair geopolitical representation within the commission’s Governing Board. One key amendment is to prevent the appointment of both the Chairman and Managing Director from the same state in the zone, while also mandating Senate confirmation of these appointments, as required by the Nigerian Constitution.

“To uphold fairness and align with the federal character principle, it is necessary that the commission’s membership reflects other geopolitical zones, in line with the Acts governing federal commissions,” Bamidele said.

A similar rationale was provided for the proposed amendments to the Southeast Development Commission Act.

Following the second reading, Senate President Godswill Akpabio stressed the importance of the amendments, noting that they are essential for the smooth operation of the development commissions in both regions.

Meanwhile, the Senate also approved the South-South Development Commission Bill for second reading, just months after initially rejecting it. The bill, sponsored by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross River South) and supported by Senator Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West), received overwhelming support across party lines.

During the debate, Senator Dickson clarified that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), often misconstrued as a zonal entity, is actually a resource-based commission addressing the environmental damage caused by oil exploration across several states. He noted that the NDDC serves not just the South-South, but parts of the Southeast and Southwest as well, while the proposed South-South Development Commission would be zonal.

With strong backing from the Senate, President Akpabio referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Special Duties and requested a report within one week.

There are reports that protests erupted at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Thursday.

Recall, local Government election has been scheduled for October 5, 2024.

According to Channels TV report, the protesters arrived in large numbers at the party’s secretariat, forced security operatives to step in to control the crowd and manage traffic congestion in the area.

Specifically, the unrest followed growing concerns over the delay in the release of the 2023 Voters’ Register by the Independent National Electoral Commission to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission.

Further recall that Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a ruling delivered on September 30, 2024, barred INEC from releasing the voters’ register to RSIEC due to legal challenges.

Despite the court ruling, Governor Siminalayi Fubara maintained that the election would go on as planned.

Fubara expressed confidence that the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling, which mandated that all states in the federation must have democratically elected local government executives, supports his position.

The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele has faulted claims that he is working against the interests of the Yoruba in the National Assembly.

Bamidele, also, said the claims “are baseless, false and unfounded,” noting that he had been dutifully serving the interests of Ekiti Central, Ekiti State, South-west and Nigeria by extension since his election into the National Assembly.

He made this clarification in a statement by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs on Wednesday, thereby challenging any person with audio-visual and documentary evidence to come out and present such.

Some media platforms had falsely attributed a statement to the senate leader that “If we allow the regional system in Nigeria, we would have automatically given the easterners Biafra.”

Faulting the statement on Wednesday, Bamidele said he never made such a statement, which he said, was an attempt to pitch him against the Yoruba and other ethnic nationalities in the federation.

He added that he did not make any statement about the regional government in line with the 1960 and 1963 Constitution at the 27th-28th September 2024 Senate Retreat on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.

“The claim is far from the truth. I never spoke about the return to the regional government at any forum; neither did I make a claim that ‘If we allow the regional system in Nigeria, we would have automatically given the easterners Biafra.’

“It is a sheer case of misinformation and deliberate fake news, which do not in any way represent my worldview about federal governance structure,” Bamidele said.

Bamidele, however, warned that he would not hesitate to legally challenge any individual or establishment fabricating and circulating fake news against his person and office.

Currently, according to the senate leader, there is no proposal for the return to the regional government before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.

He further said: “How then can I oppose the proposal that is not currently before the Constitution Review Committee? I believe this statement is politically motivated to discredit me before Nigeria as a whole.

“Already, the 10th Senate Constitution Review Committee has received 37 fresh constitution alteration bills. The Committee is also considering 16 constitution alteration bills inherited from the 9th National Assembly, making 53 alteration bills altogether.

“None of these alteration bills proposed the return to the regional federal governance structure as practised in the First Republic. Linking me to an anti-regional government is a deliberate attempt to tarnish my image. I am not working against the interest of the Yoruba. I will never do so for any reason,” he said.