Fifty-three years after the Nigerian civil war, the House of Representatives yesterday passed through a third reading a bill seeking the establishment of the Southeast Development Commission.
The House unanimously decided the Committee of the Whole chaired by the deputy speaker, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu after considering the report of the bill.
Standing in Kalu’s name as the lead sponsor and indeed, all the lawmakers from the Southeast, the explanatory memorandum of the bill stated that the Commission would be charged with the responsibility to receive and manage funds from the allocation of the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses and other infrastructural damages suffered by the region as a result of the effect of the civil war.
When established, the commission will also tackle the ecological problems and any other related environmental or developmental challenges in the Southeast States which include Abia, Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi.
Incidentally, the passage of the bill is coming at a time when embers of the national assembly from the region led by the deputy speaker are championing a new initiative known as the Peace in South East Project (PISE-P) which is craving for a non-kinetic approach to resolving the socio-economic and sociological challenges and also boost the infrastructural development of the area.
The third reading of the bill implies that it will now be taken to the Senate for concurrence before it will be transmitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his assent to make it a law.
Similarly, the House also passed through third reading a bill seeking to repeal the Weights and Measures Act, Cap. W3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to establish the Nigerian Weights and Measures Regulatory Agency, for the development and enforcement of varying scopes of legal metrology standards for the promotion of fair trade, protection of public health, safety and the environment.
The House also decided the Committee of the Whole while considering the report on the bill.