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South-East Development Commission: Ohanaeze Youths Laud NASS, Seek Tinubu’s Assent
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, has lauded the National Assembly over the passage of the South-East Development Commission bill.
It could be recalled that the Senate finally passed the bill last Thursday almost two months after its passage by the House of Representatives.
During plenary last week, Michael Opeyemi, the Senate Leader, and Senator representing Ekiti Central had presented the Bill for an Act to act as catalyst to develop the commercial potentials of the South East and for other Connected Matters, 2024 (HB.626) for concurrence and second reading.
The House of Representatives had in December 2023 passed the long-awaited bill after years of agitation.
The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu.
Recall that the Bill was earlier passed by the 8th Senate but did not receive assent from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement made available to journalists, the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, said the passage of the bill was a dream come true for Ndigbo.
Okwu, who hailed the Senate leadership under Senator Godswill Akpabio for passing the bill without haste, noted that “we have always expressed our unflinching support to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
“We know that under his watch, every section of Nigeria will get due legislative attention without much ado and that is exactly what has happened.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council equally lauds the House of Representatives for taking the lead in December last year.
“It is clear that we have responsive and capable leaders in both chambers of the National Assembly.
“We equally commend the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, a great Igbo leader, for initiating and seeing to the passage of the bill in the Green Chamber.”
While urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to assent to the bill, Okwu expressed hope that it would catapult development in the South-East.
“Our appeal to the father of the nation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is to sign this bill into law as soon as possible.
“The former administration, out of their hatred for Ndigbo refused to allow it sail through even after it was passed.
“We are glad that the bill is alive again; so, our appeal to Mr President is to sign it into law in order to facilitate the long awaited development of the South-East, a region that has suffered unprecedented neglect,” Okwu further stated.
The founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, Prof Udenta Udenta, on Thursday, accused the Bola Tinubu Presidency of dismantling democratic values and weaponing the judiciary, and the 1999 Constitution (as amended) against Nigerians.
Prof Udenta, a distinguished fellow of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, said the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State was a distortion of democratic institutions by the Tinubu government.
“The system that should protect democratic governance, you are weaponising them; the judiciary, the apparatus of the state, you are distorting, diluting and transmogrifying them in a way and manner that is shutting down democratic conversations.
“That is what you find as the legacy of the Bola Tinubu president and his political agents,” Prof Udenta said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
The scholar said dismantling democratic principles isn’t by shooting guns but by misusing democratic instruments like the constitution and the judiciary.
“When you abandon the foundational norms of democracy and then you begin to use instruments you acquired in power to dismantle the guardrails that govern the democratic system, then democracy dies.
“It is not by firing a shot that democracy dies or crumbles, it is leveraging the guardrails like the constitution, like what was done in Rivers State, to abort democratic rules,” he said.
The scholar also accused Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd) of dismantling the levers of democracy with his suspension of all political appointees in the oil-rich state.
“You find the sole administrator strutting around Port Harcourt, dismantling democratic infrastructure,” he said.
Prof Udenta described what is practised in Rivers State as a “hybrid regime which is a part of competitive authoritarianism” being deployed to “manacle the spirit of a nation and abort democratic institutions at all levels” including labour unions, media houses, political parties, and civil societies.
Prof Udenta regretted that the quality of the lives of Nigerians in the last two years has so depreciated. He lamented that there is widespread hunger and poverty in the land with escalating food inflation usurping the income of average Nigerians.
“There is poverty in the land, there is hunger everywhere, inflation is soaring, criminality and terrorism and all manners of insecurity pervade the nation, and the government is bemused like this current one,” he said.
A bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to provide for the office of the Prime Minister as head of government and the office of President as head of state and to provide for a framework for the mode of election to the said offices, has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.
It is among 32 Constitution amendment bills that scaled second reading in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Also among the bills is a bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to provide for specific seats for women in the national assembly and state houses of assembly.
Another is a bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to reduce the lengthy period for determination of pre-election petition matters and provide for the establishment of pre-election tribunals for pre-election matters and regulate the process of suspending a member of the national assembly from legislative duties.
A bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to review the requirements that qualifies persons to be elected as president and vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, governors and deputy governor, passed second reading as well.
A bill for an act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to review the status of the Federal Capital Territory as regards the election of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and bills for the creation of Wan State and Gobir State also passed second reading.
This brings the total number of Constitution Amendment Bills passed so far through second reading to 113.
Actress Regina Daniels has assured her husband, Ned Nwoko, that she will stand by him even if multiple women are linked to him.
The movie star stated this in the comment section of her husband’s touching poem posted on Instagram on Thursday.
Senator Nwoko, in his post, dispelled rumour of marital discord and revealed that they were expecting their third child together.
“Oooh my king! The greatest man in Igbo land! Dike’m! Obim! Ezigbo dim Oma!” Regina commented.
“What did I do to deserve this honour! 10,000 women by your right, 20,000 by your left and I will stand gidigba because what we share will remain the first in history.”
Nwoko’s post followed rumour that he was expecting a child outside wedlock with actress Chika Ike.
The lawmaker addressed the allegation in his post, saying: “No rumoured child outside, That ship never sailed, Let them retire that story, tired and stale.
“Their lies will fade, their voices dim, Yet here we stand unmoved, untrimmed. For love like ours, built on steel, Doesn’t break, doesn’t kneel. Still standing, still thriving, unshaken, supreme.”
He also warned those spreading falsehoods about him, revealing that he has placed a bounty on those propagating defamatory claims.
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