By Charles Ogbu
The Southwest Development Commission (SWDC) bill was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in March 2025 while the board was inaugurated in September 2025, marking full operational start. In otherwords, SWDC has been operational for just 9 months. But within that short period of time and without much noise or conference after conference, the leadership of the commission has secured a provisional Rail Operating and Track Access Licence from the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to revive dormant rail corridors and build modern networks that will link all six Yoruba States of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti through a 44-city rail grid to boost trade, agriculture, industry and mobility.
This is a Development Commission that has existed for less than 9 full months oooo.
But in the same country, a similar commission known as the Southeast Development Commission (SEDC) bill was signed in july 2024 (nearly 2 years ago) and the Board inaugurated on 12 February 2025 (a year and 4 months now) but the only achievements the 39 year old young man – Mark Okoye II – heading it can point to is how he spent a staggering 2.4 BILLION on office expenses and another whopping 1.6 BILLION on vehicles for an agency that does not yet have an office in any part of the region for which it was established. Would the 2.4 BILLION not have given him a befitting office in Enugu? (For the record, the above figures are from the budget breakdown presented by Mark Okoye himself as funds ALREADY SPENT)
And this is a region in dire need of infrastructural and developmental projects, a region which has since been crying of marginalization and a near absolute nothingness in terms of federal presence…..yes, that same region is where a 39 year old young man appointed to head their own Development Commission to which an initial allocation of 5 BILLION has since been released followed by another 16.6 BILLION released last December, has chosen to play naijabet with the destiny of millions.
All that Ndigbo have seen from Mark Okoye and his group are Seminars, Conferences, Workshops and cho cho cho.
To show how bad the situation is, this young dude did not even know the credit balance of the same Commission he is heading and when one of his gang members whispered it to him, he claimed it was between 11-12 billion. It took the Chairman of the committee, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu to tell him exactly how much that is in his own Commission. As in, these guys deliberately under-reported the credit balance by 1-2 BILLION.
Let me specially appreciate distinguished Senator Tony Okechukwu Nwoye, Enyi Abaribe, Orji Kalu and other members of the committee for doing their oversight duty with a sense of Igbo patriotism. Let me be clear, like millions of other Igbos, I have personally lost every hope in the leadership of the Commission but going by the patriotic performance of Senator Tony Nwoye when SEDC first appeared before the committee and what we witnessed yesterday from Senators OUK and Abaribe, I have no doubt that your Committee fully understand the generational shame the Igbo brand will bear if this Commission fails and you seem determined not to let that happen.
As for Mark Okoye, he can continue to use money meant for Ndigbo to hire a few online data boys and girls to defend the indefensible but the good thing is, majority of Ndigbo now know exactly what and who he is and who to hold responsible on the day of reckoning.
No man, no matter how powerful, can make a private bargain with history.
