The groundswell of agitations for the inauguration of a substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in compliance with the law, has continued to increase following the recent appointment of Obong Umana Okon Umana as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
This is moreso with Umana’s promise to “meet the yearnings of the people of the Niger Delta for development.”
The latest demand comes from Social Development Integrated Centre, also known as Social Action, which has called on the Federal Government to inaugurate a substantive NDDC Board and address other malfeasances in the Commission.
In a statement signed by its Programmes Coordinator, Botti Isaac, and released in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital over the weekend, Social Action also applauded different groups from the Niger Delta region that have “continued to demand accountability and transparency from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)” noting that “this is indeed instrumental in the call for an effective and efficient commission.”
There has been endless calls by authentic stakeholders who have consistently demanded that the NDDC Act should be complied with in the governance of the Commission, noting that it was illegal to have contraptions of interim management committees or sole administrator to administer the NDDC and arbitrarily utilise the monthly allocations due to the interventionist agency.
The group said it was saddened that despite the fact that “resources from the region account for over 70% of the nation’s revenue and 90% of foreign earnings (export), the years of neglect and abandonment have increased the suffering of the people of the region.”
“Currently there is increasing anger against the Federal Government in the Niger Delta region as a result of the very poor, biased, illegal and provocative actions of the Federal Government in the handling of matters concerning the NDDC and the Niger Delta region.
“Specifically, the NDDC has in the past three years been administered with illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions, contrary to the provisions of NDDC Act and negates fair and equitable representation which a board guarantees and which ensures proper governance, accountability, equity and fairness to the nine constituent states,” the group noted.
Social Action, therefore, charged the citizens of the Niger Delta region to take the bull by the horn and drive the change narrative for the most advantageous performance of the Commission.
“We call on the people of the Niger Delta region to work with other civil society organizations to collectively push the bar of accountability and strengthen the regional mechanism to ensure an improved NDDC,” it reiterated.
In tandem with the commitment of the new Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umana that “together we can create the necessary impact and make the difference for the people of Nigeria and the Niger Delta,” Social Action called on all stakeholders to engage their political representatives “to ensure that NDDC delivers on its mandates of catalyzing development in the region” by reiterating its call on the Federal Government to comply with the law by “inaugurating a substantive NDDC Board.”
According to Botti Isaac, “in our shared responsibility to achieve a transparent and accountable governance system, all CSOs must join hands with the citizens of the region to demand an open, transparent, and responsible NDDC. It is only by mobilizing all the arsenals at our collective disposal that we can get the NDDC to its right course and advance the sustainable development of the region.
“A broad assemblage of Niger Delta stakeholders also believe that by ending the ongoing illegality of sole administratorship in NDDC and inaugurating the Commission’s substantive board in compliance with the law, to represent the nine constituent states, it will inevitably ensure proper corporate governance, checks and balances, accountability, transparency, and probity in managing the Commission.”
