President Bola Tinubu has signed a bill into law to establish the North Central Development Commission.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio made the announcement on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, revealing that Tinubu had also signed bills for the establishment of a federal polytechnic in Rano, Kano State, and a federal university of health sciences in Tsafe, Zamfara State.
The signing of the North Central Commission bill follows several calls for the president to take action. The law aims to strengthen the economy and enhance infrastructural development in the North Central geopolitical zone.
Although Akpabio did not specify the exact date these bills were signed, his announcement came just a day after Tinubu assented to a bill creating a federal university of environmental technology in Ogoni, Rivers State.
At a signing ceremony held at the Presidential Villa on Monday, Tinubu explained that the new institution would address environmental challenges in Ogoni and expand educational opportunities throughout the Niger Delta region.
“For decades, the Ogoni people have been at the forefront of the fight for environmental restoration and sustainable development, shaping both national and global conversations on these critical issues,” Tinubu stated.
The Ogoni are well known for their activism against the environmental degradation caused by oil exploration, particularly by multinational corporations.
In the early 1990s, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), led by the late activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, drew global attention to the environmental destruction in Ogoni land, sparking widespread protests and conflicts with the Nigerian government.