South East Development Commission: APGA BoT Chair Okorie Hails Tinubu’s Landmark Act

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for signing into law the South East Development Commission Bill. This landmark legislation aims to address long-standing infrastructural and developmental deficits in Nigeria’s South East region, stemming from the Nigeria-Biafra war that ended in 1970.

Initially introduced in 2017 by Hon. Chukwuka Onyema of the Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Anambra State, the bill faced early setbacks and did not progress past its second reading. However, in 2024, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, revived the bill, broadening its scope and garnering swift legislative support. The Senate promptly concurred, and President Tinubu’s rapid assent turned the bill into law, thus establishing the South East Development Commission Act.

Chief Okorie recalled that following the civil war, the Federal Government, under General Yakubu Gowon, declared a policy of “No Victor, No Vanquished” and committed to a program of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction (3R) in the devastated region. Despite this pledge, the federal presence in the South East remained minimal for nearly five decades.

“It is in this light that I see the patriotic action of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in enacting the South East Development Commission Act as a bold step to heal the wounds of the civil war and restore to the people of the South East geopolitical zone their well-deserved and long-overdue sense of belonging in Nigeria,” Okorie stated in Abuja on Thursday.

Chief Okorie called for sincere and robust funding for the commission to ensure it fulfills its core objectives. He also urged collaboration between the South East populace, both at home and in the diaspora, and the Federal Government to help realize the commission’s goals.

“This long-awaited promise is finally on the path to fulfillment under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, more than 50 years after the end of the war,” he concluded.