South West Development Commission bill passed into law at Senate

The Nigerian Senate on Thursday passed into law a Bill establishing the South West Development Commission.

The passage was the aftermath of a report presented to the Committee of the Whole by Senator Shehu Lawa Kaka representing Borno Central Senatorial District and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties.

Senator Kaka in his presentation of the report for the establishment of the South West Development Commission, said the intentions and purposes of the bill are well structured for socio-economic development of the South West.

“If the Commission is established through presidential assent to the bill, it will, like other development-driven commissions established on a zonal basis, receive funds from the federation account, donations from development partners to address infrastructural deficits and tackle ecological problems in the region,” he said.

The Senate accordingly moved into the Committee of the Whole for a clause-by-clause consideration of the bill after which it was read for the third time.

In his remarks after the passage of the bill, the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin who presided over the session, commended the Senator Kaka-led committee for a job well done.

He said the South West Development Commission like other ones, recently established, will address the infrastructural and ecological challenges in the South West.

‘The essence of the various development commissions being set up is to fast track development of the entire country.

“President Bola Tinubu has assented to similar bills passed for zonal development-driven interventions and will surely assent to this one, ” he said.