By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—THE Senate, yesterday, finally passed the North-East Development Commission Bill which empowers the Federal Government to set up a commission to rebuild the region, following its devastation by Boko Haram insurgents.

With the passage of the Bill, states in the North-East where members of Boko Haram insurgents have engaged in wanton destruction of property and massive killing of people, would enjoy three percent of the federation’s value added tax, VAT, as funding for a period of ten years.

According to the Senate, all monies collected by the Federal Government for the development of the North- East should be domiciled in the commission.

The Commission will also get 15 percent cost of Mining Lease, licence granted by the Federal Government for mining within the member states, just as budgetary allocation from the Federal Government made to the commission as well as royalties on mining areas in member states.

File: The Baga attack by Boko Haram

The decision of the upper chambers was arrived at after a clause by clause consideration of the report submitted by the Senate joint Committees on Special Duties and Establishment and Public Services on the North-East Development Commission Bill, 2015(SB.163).

A new development to the approved Bill was the inclusion of Kano State in the North West geo- political zone and Plateau in North Central on the list of states to benefit from the rebuilding plans, despite their locations in North-West and North-Central respectively.

The decision to include Kano and Plateau in the rebuilding plan followed a protest by Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano Central) that the two states were severally attacked by the insurgents.

The commission shall establish and maintain a fund from which shall be defrayed all cost incurred by the commission.

The report said:  “There shall be a fund established pursuant to sub- clause ( 1) of this clause- ( a) from the Federal Government, the equivalent of 15 percent of the total monthly statutory allocations due to member states of the commission from the Federation Account; this being the contribution of the Federal Government to the commission; (b) 3 percent of the total annual budget of any solid mineral extracting mining company operating in the North East states, including Agricultural processing companies.

“ 50 percent of monies due of member states    of the commission from the Ecological Fund; such monies as May from time to time be granted or lent to or deposited with the commission by the federal or a state government, any other body or institution, whether local or foreign.”

Though contribution of 50 percent of what accrues to the member states of the North East was recommended, it was seen as too ambitious and 25 percent was approved.

The Senate also removed the initial 15 percent from the Bill because the National Assembly cannot through a legislation, arbitrarily reduce percentage of money going to states without due consultation and agreement of the states.

The bill provides that the commission should be located in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, just as it would formulate policies and guidelines for the development of the North East States; conceive, plan and implement, in accordance with set rules, regulations, projects and programmes for the sustainable development of the North East in the field of transportation, including roads, health, education, employment, agriculture, industrialization, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications.

Meanwhile, shortly after the passage of the Bill by the upper chambers, senators from Lagos State yesterday reiterated their call for the grant of one percent to Lagos as a special status.

Addressing journalists, Senators Olugbenga Ashafa, APC, Lagos East and Olamilekan Adeola, APC, Lagos West, noted that the granting of one percent to Lagos State as a former federal capital had become imperative because 67-68 percent of Value Added Tax, VAT, came from Lagos, adding that the state needed assistance.

The senators, who noted that they were not kicking against the three percent granted the North East, said they were appealing to Nigerians to help ensure that the grant requested for was listened to by the Senate.

They also said the rejected bill, which was sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu, APC, Lagos Central, would be re-presented, with assurance that all the senators would support it when it came back for consideration.

It would be recalled that the Senate had penultimate week, for the second time  in three years, rejected proposals to grant Lagos a special status, in view of the avalanche of socio-economic challenges facing it as former political capital of Nigeria. The state is still the economic capital and commercial nerve centre of the country.