The Senate on Wednesday called on the federal government to improve funding of the Border Community Development Agency, (BCDA).
It equally resolved to mandate the 21 border states to dedicate 1.5 per cent of consolidated revenue fund and 30 per cent of the ecological fund to the development of border communities.
It directed its Committee on States and Local Government led by Senator Olamilekan Mustapha, to carry out a holistic investigation on the level of compliance with the Act establishing the BCDA.
This was a sequel to the consideration of a motion titled “The need to pay attention to the plight of border communities in Nigeria” sponsored by Senator representing Kwara North, Sadiq Umar and 21 other Senators.
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Umar, in his submission, said: “there exists a Border Community Development Agency (BCDA) established in 2003 by law to cater for the plight and development of border communities in Nigeria.”
According to him, when the agency was founded, it had well-spelt counterpart funding mechanism under the BCDA Act 2003 to ensure effective service delivery for the development of the border communities.
This, he said, include 7.5 per cent of the total revenue allocation due to the federal government deductible at source and 15 per cent of the total monthly statutory allocation due to member states of the agency also deductible at source.
The counterpart funding also included 55 per cent of the monies due to member states of the agency from the ecological fund and 10 per cent of the monthly statutory allocation due to the border local government deductible at source.
Umar explained that “deductions were made from these accounts even before the commencement of the commission without significant impact on the member states, local government and border communities and this led to the border state governors’ protest and the subsequent amendments of the relevant section (Section 9) by the National Assembly in 2006.”
He noted that “the border communities are in dire need of development in the areas of infrastructure, health, education, water and access roads, but the BCDA has not been able to cater for the needs of these communities because of insufficient funding.”
Senator Umar recalled that a community which incidentally was within his senatorial zone, Bukuro, a border community in Baruten local government in Kwara state experienced a fatal occurrence in October 2009 when about 84 school children drowned in a river while going to school in the neighbouring border community in the Benin Republic.
He further told the Senate that unlike neighbouring communities from other countries like the Benin Republic, Niger and Cameroon, which are less endowed in terms of resources but are enjoying world-class facilities, their counterparts in Nigeria were at the mercy of these other countries for their medical needs, education and others with the attendant security risk to Nigeria.
In his contribution, Senator Isah Jibrin emphasised the need for the federal government to put in place an intervention fund to address the problems facing border communities in the country, which he noted are beyond the powers of state and local governments.
He warned that the indifference to the plights of border communities has grave implications for the security of the country.
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