NIGERIA’S GREAT RESET
CHAPTER XXVI
THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT TEST: BILLIONS FOR THE REGIONS—BUT WHERE IS THE IMPACT?
By Gloria Fraser, MFR
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assembled Nigeria’s seven regional development commissions like sections of a national orchestra. Giving each section instruments is not enough; Nigerians are waiting to hear the music.
Budgets are the instruments. Projects are the notes. Development is the performance—and ultimately, the people must hear the difference.
Nigeria has entered an unprecedented era of regional development. Alongside the older Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and North-East Development Commission (NEDC), the Federal Government has established commissions covering the North-West, South-East, North-Central, South-West and South-South.
For the first time, every geopolitical zone effectively has a dedicated federal institution designed to confront its peculiar development challenges.
But creating commissions is the beginning, not the achievement.
TINUBU’S REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT VISION
When President Tinubu signed the North-West and South-East Development Commission laws in July 2024, the State House said the policy reflected his commitment to “equitable development, inclusive governance” and quality services for Nigerians regardless of where they live.
Tinubu subsequently provided the standard against which that vision should be measured:
“We must move beyond dialogue to delivery.”
— President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
Vice-President Kashim Shettima carried that principle directly to the regional development commissions:
“Your commission must be known for delivery, not bureaucracy. Nigerians will measure your success by the quality of roads built, jobs created, businesses supported, and communities transformed.”
— Vice-President Kashim Shettima, GCON
He reinforced the accountability standard:
“Every project must be transparent, measurable and capable of attracting private investment.”
That is precisely how the seven commissions should be judged.
WHY SEVEN COMMISSIONS?
Nigeria’s regions do not confront identical problems.
The North-East continues rebuilding from insurgency. The North-West faces insecurity, poverty and infrastructure deficits. The North-Central combines enormous agricultural potential with insecurity and inadequate infrastructure.
The South-East has longstanding infrastructure and inclusion demands. The Niger Delta and wider South-South face environmental degradation despite producing much of Nigeria’s petroleum wealth. The South-West combines immense economic capacity with urbanisation, transport and infrastructure pressures.
Regional commissions therefore allow development policy to respond more directly to regional realities.
The transformation of the former Niger Delta ministry into the Federal Ministry of Regional Development also created an umbrella for coordinating the seven commissions.
THE NORTH-WEST: FROM INSTITUTION TO RESULTS
The North-West Development Commission is especially important because the region combines enormous agricultural and commercial potential with serious security and human-development challenges.
Its Chairman, Alhaji Lawal Samaila Abdullahi Yakawada, has publicly promised:
“We assure you that we will be accountable and transparent, and we will achieve the target set for us.”
That commitment should become a benchmark against which the commission itself is measured.
Katsina State Governor and Chairman of the North-West Governors’ Forum, Dikko Umaru Radda, provided an equally important perspective:
“This commission is not just another institution; it is a critical intervention that we must recognise and utilise effectively.”
Radda later captured the central challenge facing regional institutions:
“We must now act with determination to translate this into tangible results for our people.”
The message from the North is therefore not simply give us another commission. It is: make the commission work.
THE SOUTH-EAST: A LONGSTANDING DEMAND ANSWERED
The South-East Development Commission carries particular historical significance.
At the SEDC Vision 2050 Stakeholder Forum, Anambra State Governor Professor Chukwuma Soludo publicly thanked Tinubu for establishing an institution the region had demanded for decades:
“I want to thank His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for finally…finally giving us what we have been clamoring for in decades—the South East Development Commission.”
Soludo later said:
“Certainly, President Tinubu has a date with history, and even more so with the Southeast.”
Those acknowledgements are politically important.
They do not mean every South-East grievance has disappeared. They mean an important institutional demand has been answered. The burden now shifts to the SEDC to turn that opportunity into infrastructure, industry, technology, investment and employment.
“OUR PEOPLE EXPECT RESULTS”
South-South Development Commission Chairman Rt. Hon. Chibudom Nwuche expressed the same philosophy bluntly:
“Our people expect results, and rightly so.”
That sentence could hang above the entrance of every regional commission.
Nigeria does not need seven additional bureaucracies competing with ministries, governors and local governments.
It needs seven engines of regional transformation.
BILLIONS MUST BECOME DEVELOPMENT
The older commissions demonstrate the enormous financial scale involved.
The NDDC’s proposed 2025 budget exceeded ₦1.7 trillion, while the NEDC has delivered interventions across roads, bridges, schools, healthcare, water, reconstruction and other sectors in the North-East.
The newer commissions are understandably at earlier stages.
But administrative infancy cannot become a permanent excuse for weak delivery.
Already, parliamentary oversight has raised questions.
In 2026, senators questioned the South-East Development Commission concerning expenditure exceeding ₦4 billion from its 2025 allocation and requested fuller documentation.
The Senate also questioned the North-West Development Commission concerning approximately ₦943 million associated with board allowances and governance matters.
These are oversight queries—not findings of corruption or criminal guilt.
That distinction matters.
But oversight is precisely what public accountability requires.
NDDC AND SSDC: DON’T PAY TWICE FOR THE SAME PROMISE
The creation of the South-South Development Commission alongside the longstanding NDDC presents another challenge.
Their statutory purposes differ, but their geography overlaps considerably.
Without coordination, two federal institutions could conceivably plan similar roads, empowerment programmes or infrastructure within the same communities.
The solution is clear mandates, shared project mapping and coordination.
Nigeria should never pay twice for the same promise.
THE NATIONAL PATRIOTS DEVELOPMENT DASHBOARD
National Patriots proposes a publicly accessible Regional Development Performance Dashboard for all seven commissions.
Every significant project should disclose:
Project | State/LGA | Contract Value | Contractor | Amount Released | Start Date | Completion Target | Percentage Completed | Current Status | Photographic Evidence
A citizen in Katsina, Enugu, Bayelsa or Plateau should be able to see what was promised to the community, how much was allocated and what has actually been delivered.
Transparency is not merely an anti-corruption mechanism.
It is perception management through evidence.
BEYOND CONTRACTS: BUILD REGIONAL ECONOMIES
The commissions should not become merely road-and-building agencies.
The North-West can deepen irrigation, livestock, agro-processing and storage. The North-East requires reconstruction integrated with agriculture and industry. The North-Central can expand food production and processing.
The South-East can leverage manufacturing, technology and commerce. The South-South requires environmental restoration alongside maritime, energy and industrial development. The South-West can deepen logistics, technology and regional transport integration.
The ultimate measure is not how much a commission spends.
It is what productive capacity remains after the money has been spent.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Seven regional commissions now have their instruments. Some inherited difficult scores; others are only beginning to play. But Nigerians will not judge this orchestra by the cost of its instruments or the size of its budgets.
They will judge it by the music they hear in their communities—roads completed, jobs created, businesses supported and lives improved.
— Princess Gloria Adebajo-Fraser MFR
NATIONAL PATRIOTS POSITION
National Patriots commends President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for creating an unprecedented architecture in which every geopolitical zone now has a dedicated regional development institution.
It is an important response to longstanding demands for inclusion and targeted development.
But history will judge these commissions by delivery—not establishment ceremonies.
National Patriots advocates transparent project dashboards, rigorous parliamentary oversight, independent auditing, disciplined administrative expenditure and measurable community impact.
Tinubu has assembled the orchestra and provided the instruments. The commissions must now produce the music Nigerians were promised.
Princess Gloria Adebajo-Fraser MFR
President, The National Patriots
Former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan
Vice-Chairman Strategic Communications Committee Buhari PCC 2019
