Godswill Obot Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs on Thursday lamented the deplorable state of the Niger Delta region saying that the Niger Delta Development commission (NDDC) which was set up to ensure development in the region has not lived up to expectation.
Akpabio speaking in Abuja while receiving the management team of the commission said that NDDC was created as a necessity to meet the developmental need of the people but has been overtaken by the political interest of the leaders who have accrued debt over N2trillion.
“We are out to redirect the the focus of the NDDC, the impact of the commission would have been more if not for the political interest of most of our leaders, our regional growth has been hindered over the years and this must stop”.
“It is disheartening to note that there is not a single legacy project in the region, I believe the mandate of the ministry also involve remediation and intervention hence we will begin forensic audit of the overall operations of the commission”, he added.
The minister speaking further said that there is an urgent need to intensify and fast track development in the region by taking step to involve communities in project conception, planning, implementation and focus on critical drivers of for stability, human and infrastructural development.
“We have a responsibility not to allow this unsavory situation to persist and continue to undermine the social compact between government and the people of the region. Regional mistrust of government must be addressed by evident development outcomes”, he said.
In his remarks, Festus Keyamo, Minister of state, Niger Delta Affairs said that the commission has failed in terms of commensurability of project and the income accruable to the region stressing that the commission has lost its vision over time.
He said “The original concept of the commission is to ensure development of the region but it has been changed over the years to venture of making the pockets of politicians fat. We will not do things the way we used to anymore”.
He further stressed that the ministry will exercise the authority of the president to ensure that development is restored to the region.
“The general perception out there is that the various agencies of government charged to develop the region has performed below expectation, while we recognize that sometimes policy execution is hampered by inadequate budgetary provision, it is evident that poor performance is mainly due to uncoordinated effort, duplication of projects and wastage on our part”.
Akwagaga Enyia, director, NDDC in her remark pledged to to work with the vision of the minister to restore the state of the region and redirect the region to create development that will impact the people of the region.
“Going forward we will work to redirect and re-position the commission to ensure adequate supervision of the project in the region”.
Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja.
