On July 24, 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu established the South East Development Commission, SEDC.
The establishment of SEDC was seen as a milestone and also a big plus to the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu following the alleged sidelining of the idea by the successive administrations in the country.
The Commission would serve as middle man in attracting and driving economic development in the region which is made up of Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra and Imo states.
However, two years after its establishment, the Commission has virtually nothing to show for its development drive in the region.
Rather, what has taken over body that would have served as economic pivot of the region is now accusation of alleged monstrous fraud.
The Commission clocked two years on July 24, 2026, but is very unfortunate that till today, no meaningful project ongoing is said to have been either attracted or carried out by the SEDC.
In comparison of performance, the South West Development Commission (SWDC), which was established in March 2025, has secured a provisional Rail Operating and Track Access Licence from the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to revive dormant rail corridors and at the same time build modern networks that will link all six South West states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, through a 44-city rail grid to boost trade. This is with a view to boosting agriculture, industry and mobility.
Senate Committee queries SEDC
Worried by the alleged reported financial recklessness of the Commission, the Senate Committee on the South East Development Commission (SEDC) on June 9, 2026 queried the management of the commission over its inability to account for more than N4 billion spent from its 2025 budget.
The committee issued the query when the Managing Director of the SEDC Mark Okoye, appeared before the committee.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that Mr Okoye appeared alongside Sylvester Okonkwo, a former chief of staff to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to defend the commission’s expenditure for the year.
According to appropriation records, the SEDC received N16.6 billion for its operations in 2025.
The chairman of the Committee, Orji Kalu, questioned the commission’s contribution to the development of the South-east.
He went further to demand details of how its budget had been utilised.
Mr Kalu, who represents Abia North Senatorial District, asked the managing director how much remained in the commission’s account and how the funds had been spent.
“We’ll not tolerate anything, whether you’re appointed by heaven and earth. My duty is to do my duty, and we’re to do our duty as parliamentarians. I don’t care how you reached here, but the constitution has given me, all of us, a job to do, and we must guide you to do it according to the laws of Nigeria.
“The question I want to ask you is that, you receive N16.6 billion, how much is left in your account?” he asked.
In response, Mr Okoye said the commission had between N11.5 billion and N12 billion remaining in its account, indicating that more than N4 billion had been spent on operational activities.
“At the last time we checked and the last information that was given to me, the SEDC should have at least between N11.5 to N12 billion in its account,” he claimed.
However, Mr Kalu rejected the explanation, insisting that the figure did not align with the records available to the committee or with information obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He therefore demanded a detailed breakdown of the expenditure.
“In the committee, we have access to anywhere you can spend money and keep money. These people are not people you know; they’re government officials. I have spoken to the Central Bank, I can go to my office and give you documents now, and we have sent the Auditor General to audit everything you have done because I am not impressed,” he added.
Unable to provide a detailed account of the expenditure, the SEDC managing director was directed to return before the committee the next week with comprehensive documentation showing how the funds had been utilised.
“We’re not satisfied with your job, this is not a job somebody that claims to be an expert like you should be doing. I’m very disappointed, and this committee is very disappointed, and we give you one week to go back and tell us the whole truth on this thing and come back to the committee because you’re wasting our time. We want to see you back next Tuesday,” Mr Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, said.
The senator also alleged that records available to the committee showed that the commission pays N153 million annually for a small office in Abuja despite maintaining its headquarters in Enugu.
“You have one little office here in Abuja and you pay N153 million, by one room. This committee knows. You’re dealing with people who have gone far than you think you can go. This is why I’m warning you people, let us not continue this joke here. I want to save you from a problem,” the senator said.
By and large, lamenting on the ugly situation, Chijioke Attah, an Enugu-based social critic and journalist told our reporter that the commission is not living up to its expectations.
According to Mr. Attah, “the South East Development Commission, SEDC as established by the Federal government has not been able to do much in the last two years against all the expectations of the people.
“The clamour for the setting up of the SEDC was to draw down development to the area like we have in other zones with their own development commissions.
“But, unfortunately, I think that the leadership of the commission could be likened to square pegs in round holes.
In the last two years, all they have been able to do is to gallivant around, host seminars and symposia and all that.”
Explaining further, Mr. Attah stressed that “People want to see concrete development. People want to see development that they can feel, something that can transform the lives of the people, not speaking big grammar.
“This is because the establishment of the Commission is to bring infrastructural development in the South East.”
Lamenting the decay of infrastructure in the zone, he said that “We are pained by dilapidated roads, erosion threats in spite of the fact that the South East zone should be industrial hub of the country.
“But, unfortunately, nothing much is happening. People have been raising concern over the suitability of the man at the helm of affairs. So, I think they need to do more.
“Two years is not two months. It is not two weeks either. Two years is quite sufficient time for the leadership to have settled in. The establishment of that Commission is not for them to be jumping from one hotel to the other in the name of doing seminar and all that.
“By now, we would have hearing of south East Development Commission setting out to do this, setting out to that and addressing the infrastructural deficit of the region.”
Also in his separate opinion, Charles Ogbu, a social critic and human rights activist said the leadership of the Commission has nothing to offer the zone.
Comparing the South East Development Commission with it’s South West counterpart, he emphasised that the SWDC has been operational for just nine months and 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.
In his words, “but in the same country, a similar commission known as the South East Development Commission (SEDC) bill was signed in July 2024 (over two years) and the Board inaugurated on 12 February 2025 but the only achievements of the management of the commission is an allegation of how it spent a staggering N2.4 billion on office expenses and another whopping N1.6 billion on vehicles for an agency that does not yet have an office in any part of the region for which it was established.”
According to him, “This is a region in dire need of infrastructural and developmental projects, a region, which has since been crying of marginalisation and a near absolute nothingness in terms of federal presence, but all that the people of the South East have seen from the management of SEDC are seminars, conferences and workshops.”
Mr. Ogbu expressed disappointment over the recent allegation of misappropriation by the management of SEDC and extolled Tony Nwoye, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Orji Uzor-Kalu and other members of the Senate Committee for doing their oversight duty with a sense of patriotism.
“Like millions of other Igbos, I have personally lost every hope in the leadership of the Commission, but going by the patriotic performance of Tony Nwoye when SEDC first appeared before the committee and what we witnessed from Orji-Kalu and Abaribe, I have no doubt that the Committee fully understands the generational shame the Igbo brand will bear, if this Commission fails,” he noted.
