By Yusuf Bello
The bill for an Act to establish the North West Development Commission to act as catalyst to develop the commercial and industrial potentials of the North West passed second reading at the Senate on Wednesday.
The seek to receive and manage funds from allocation of the federation for the agricultural and industrial development of the North West.
Senator Jibrin Barau (Kano north) sponsored the bill.
In his lead debate, Senator Jibrin emphasised that the establishment of the North West development commission would act as a catalyst to develop the arrays of potentials of the region as well as address the gap in the infrastructural development of the area.
According to him, the region has contributed immensely to the overall development of Nigeria in terms of agriculture and other areas, saying yet the region remains hugely underdeveloped.
He observed that what the region requires now from the federal government is the support to develop its infrastructure and educate its seeming youths so as to drive the process of developing the zone in its entirety in order to grow with the more developed zones in the country.
Jibrin lamented that the zone has the highest population of people among the six geopolitical zones in the country with about 70 percent of the population consisting of the youth.
“The sad fact is that majority of these youths are uneducated in the region that has the highest out of school children in the country.
“The establishment of this commission shall help to address this problem by educating these youths so as to develop the needed human capital to drive the developmental needs of the region in particular and Nigeria in general.
“The enactment of this bill will help to rebuild the North West zone and provide opportunity for the people of the zone to display their talents and contribute immensely to the development of the country,” he said.
Others who spoke in favour of the bill were, Senators Kaita Babba Ahmad( Katsina North), Francis Fadahunsi ( Osun East), Ibikunle Amosun( Ogun Central), Kabiru Gaya( Kano South), Ibrahim Gobir( Sokoto East) among others.
