Enough Of Toothless Regional Organisations

In as much as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has an inalienable right to have his style of governance, the recent slant of his administration to create toothless regional organisaitons all over the place is becoming mindboggling.
At the last count, development commissions are springing up in the North West, North East, South West, South South and South East. At best, these quasi regional organizations are becoming increasingly like retirement homes for aged activists, expired politicians and their ilk.
Without mincing words, the propensity of the government in power to replicate regional development commissions whilst state governments are funded copiously leaves much to be desired.
All things considered, there seems to be a strident clamour for regional organisations arising from the attention given to the people of the Niger Delta that led to the formation of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
If these agitations stem from the perceived preferential treatment given to the Niger Delta Commission, the sponsors of these ill-conceived regional organisations should be properly informed that the Niger Delta has its peculiar terrain, challenges and history which dates back to the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC. The functionality and creation of the NDDC is tied to its productivity and utilitarian value to Nigeria.
That a particular region has a development commission does not confer automatic right to ethnic groups from another region to demand for inclusion. These regional development commissions must be screened in order to ascertain the viability and workability of the regional commission. For sake of emphasis, regional organisations should not be perceived as a jamboree, neither should the creation of regional organisations be taken with a sense of entitlement.
Many economists claim that Nigeria is at the precipice. In such a situation, all available resources need to be utilized properly for the benefit of the people. Nigeria cannot afford to embark on a voyage of waste and frivolous expenditure at a time we are surrounded by a sea of debts and debt servicing.
This brings to the fore, the burning issue of resource control where states that derive wealth from their domains, control such wealth, and only give a paltry amount to the federal government. Nigeria cannot afford to siphon the resources of economically viable regions and use these same resources to finance and empower dubious regional development commissions that make little impact in the face of developmental challenges. We hope that this mad rush for the creation of regional development organisations will not turn out to be a time bomb.