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Following recent statement credited to the Senate President Dr. Ahmad Lawan, “Let there be full-fledged management and the governing board so that our people in the Niger Delta will continue to get the attention that made the NDDC to be established in the first place”, a pan African civil society organization – National Youth Empowerment Association also known as NEYA Africa, has expressed delight and hope that the long awaited help has come from the right quarters.
Speaking with newsmen on the plight of Nigerians and the Niger Delta people in particular, a policy and public affairs analyst and founding President of NEYA Africa, Chief Chidike Ukoh said the Association can’t wait to commend and congratulate the President of the Senate once he makes good his promise to lead the way into actualizing the board inauguration .
We feel elated with the news that the Senate President Dr. Ahmad Lawan while discussing with the visiting Management Team of The Sun Newspapers Ltd. recently, reassured Nigerians and Niger Delta Region in particular, that the siege on NDDC Board inauguration has been unjustifiably grinding on the people and should therefore be lifted forthwith.
Most of us Nigerians, including industry stakeholders and rational friends of Nigeria cannot understand why relatively peaceful and stable region of the Niger Delta will suffer protracted neglect and deprivation from orchestrated administrative cum governance logjam contrary to the stable administration and efficiently run North East Development Commission NEDC operating in a Region unfortunately enmeshed by insurgency, terrorist attacks and sundry palpable fears..
Everything around the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) governance brouhaha and the sole administrator stop-gap measures are not adding up to popular demand, rather they are in contravention of the Act, the original plan and the purpose of establishing the Commission.
It is quite troubling and obviously unschooled to contemplate foisting and sustaining the strangle hold on NDDC, a statutorily established foremost intervention agency, while the target beneficiaries/ oil bearing communities are languishing in shameful, avoidable hardship and abject poverty.
In the past two years, the Honourable Minister for Niger Delta Affairs Sen. Godswill Akpabio has truly tried everything in and out of the books to stay the course and services of the Commission but much of it could not appease or appeal to the disenchanted people who clearly understand the difference between operating the NDDC under a legitimate governing board and a strange sole proprietorship.
