South West demands development commission

.Bill scales first reading in Senate

Barely 24 hours after the South East Development Commission Bill was re-introduced, the Senate on Thursday initiated a bill seeking to establish the South West Development Commission Bill.

The bill which was introduced by the Senator representing Ogun Central, Ibikunle Amosun, seeks to address developmental issues in the states which make up the South West geo-political zone.

The former governor of Ogun State said every part of the country actually needs development and that asking for the commission by people of the South west is not a misplaced priority.

Amosun said the establishment of the commission will consolidate on infrastructural developments put in place by the Western Region administration and built upon by subsequent administrations in states of the geopolitical zone.

Already in existence are the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the North East Development Commission (NEDC), which received presidential assent in October 2017.

Senator Amosun also presented a motion on need for the continuous implementation of policy reforms for the diversification of the Nigerian economy through the agricultural and solid mineral sectors which was co-sponsors by 36 others.

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He noted the policy reform measures introduced by the present administration in Agriculture and solid minerals sectors as part of efforts to diversify the Nigerian Economy;

Amosun added that the agricultural sector remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in spite of the dominant role of the petroleum sector as the major foreign exchange earner for the country.

He said: “Agriculture is the largest employer of labour and a key contributor to wealth creation and poverty alleviation, as a large percentage of the population derive their income from agriculture and related activities;

“Further aware that available statistics shows that while the contribution of crude petroleum and natural gas to the nation’s GDP declined from 14.95 per cent in 2011 to 9.61 per cent in 2015, the agricultural sector contributed 23.35 and 23.11 per cent to the nations GDP in these respective periods.

He said Nigeria is blessed with a wide variety of solid minerals which are widely distributed in almost all the states of the Federation including coal, tin ore, columbite, marble, tantalite, wolfram, gold, lead, zinc, limestone, kaolin, clay, shales, and radioactive minerals such as monazite, zircon, molybdelite and barytes, among others.

He added that prior to the emergence of petroleum as a major foreign exchange earner in Nigeria, the solid minerals sector ranked second only to the agricultural sector as a source of export earnings for the country;

After extensive deliberation, the Senate resolved to commend this administration for the laudable policies introduced and the vigorous efforts put in to revamp the agricultural and solid mineral sectors as critical sectors to Nigeria’s quest for diversification of the economy;

It urged  the Federal Government to collaborate with State and Local governments and the private sector to invest heavily in infrastructure particularly infrastructure development that will promote private investment in all areas of agriculture and solid minerals to facilitate linkage of agriculture/solid minerals to industry.

Also government was asked to strengthen agricultural research activities through increased and stable funding, proper coordination, strengthening of linkages among research centres and invest in the collection of geo-scientific information/data of estimates for mineral deposits and grade of our mineral reserves so as to attract investors.