Chairman, Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Lauretta Onochie, has lamented over the level of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta area despite the huge funds allocated to the interventionist agency over the years.
She said the NDDC was a shame to the region and the country at large, noting that monies earmarked for the development of the crude oil and gas-rich area were being fretted away to Abuja, Lagos and overseas, while the people of the region live in abject poverty.
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Onochie disclosed this shortly after assuming office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, following the handover by the immediate past acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, at the commission’s headquarters on Thursday.
She said;
This organisation was commissioned specifically for the people of the Niger Delta. It is an interventionist agency that is supposed to bring about prosperity; it is supposed to bring development in our region.
This organisation was set up in 2000. And, if you go around the Niger Delta to date, there is little or nothing to show for it. NDDC has been a shame of the Niger Delta and a shame of our nation.
Onochie, however, said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was determined and has shown commitment to turn things around since he assumed office over seven years ago.
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The former presidential aide noted;
As I said yesterday, at our inauguration, he (Buhari) never does things in his interest. Everything he does, he does in the interest of Nigerians. And this board you see here represents that interest.
We are here to reposition NDDC. We are here to serve the people of the Niger Delta and by extension people of Nigeria. We are here to do things differently. When I returned from the diaspora in 2014 to join his (Buhari) campaign, what I heard everywhere was ‘that’s not how we do it here. Madam, this is not London; this is not the UK’.
We are here to do things differently. We have come up with ideas and I believe that every one of you seated here has great and beautiful ideas. If you have been lost in the system of doing things in the way they used to be done, please dust them and throw them away. We have new ideas and we welcome the same new ideas from you.
Earlier, the new NDDC Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, said the management has not come to witch-hunt, anybody.
He explained;
I want to, first of all, assure you that we are not to antagonise anybody. We are here to also depend on your experience. NDDC administration needs experience.
We need your support; we need your cooperation.
We are not here like one party handing over from one party. We are not here to fight anybody. We are all people from Niger Delta. I want all of you to be rest assured that, based on your competence, you are going to be working with this administration.
