Chief Chekwas Okorie, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has expressed strong approval of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent signing of the South East Development Commission Bill into law.
Originally introduced in 2017 by Hon. Chukwuka Onyema of Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Anambra State, the bill had failed to advance beyond its second reading. However, in 2024, the bill was revitalized and broadened by Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. The bill's rapid passage and subsequent Senate approval led to its prompt assent by President Tinubu, culminating in the establishment of the South East Development Commission Act.
The Act is primarily focused on addressing long-standing infrastructural and developmental deficiencies in the South East region, a legacy of the Nigeria-Biafra conflict which ended in 1970. Chief Okorie highlighted that the Federal Government's earlier commitment to "No Victor, No Vanquished" and the Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction (3R) program had not been fully realized in the South East over the past five decades.
In a statement released in Abuja, Okorie commended President Tinubu’s action as a significant step towards mending the scars of the civil war and restoring a sense of inclusion to the South East region. He emphasized the need for genuine funding of the commission and urged cooperation from both local and diaspora communities to support the commission’s goals. Okorie concluded with optimism, stating that, despite the delay, the promise made more than 50 years ago is now coming to fruition under President Tinubu’s leadership.
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