BENIN CITY – Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole has expressed confidence that the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, “will do everything possible to look at the letter and spirit to do whatever that has to be done to ensure that the laws of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is complied with.”
This was when the Chairman of NDDC Senator Henshaw Bassey Ewa led other members of the Board on a courtesy visit to him in Benin City yesterday.
“I am aware that the board has initiated a number projects and according to you, you have over a 1000 of them with total value in excess of running into trillions of naira.
“These are huge hinge numbers. The expectations of the people of the Niger Delta are very high. We expect that the intervention agency will find resources to address their critical need. The fact of living in rich-oil region has meant that their people have had to cope with crisis of pollution of the water-ways affecting fishermen, affecting farmers, pollution of the land, of the air that has implications for even future generations and it is the law to the board that as an intervention agency to try take through all of this challenges and fashion out specific areas of intervention that will impact on the quality of life of the people.”
On funds for the NDDC, the Governor said “The Law is clear as to how NDDC should be funded and all that is expected is that the federal ministry of finance or to be more specific, the Federal Government ought to ensure that the laws they have passed and signed that are in operations that those laws are enforced to the letter so they in turn can compel the board to ensure that those funds are judiciously applied.”
“We as governors in the region of the South-South are meeting. In the last week of this month we are going to meet. We’ve agreed to meet and of course, one of the issues, we will be discussing will be on how we can collaborate to ensure that NDDC delivers on its mandate moreso that it gets any of those support it ought to get from the appropriate authority so that it has the wherewithal to deal with projects that we believe are doable.”
The governor said further “I remind you Mr. Chairman that because these projects have been there for a long time, it is only you who will know whether some of them are still relevant or in terms of priority, whether they still are in the current priority that you want to pursue or whether you need to review them with a view to identifying where you need to cost waste and where to go along on new ideas that you might to take on board. I think we need to invest in major infrastructural projects like rail that you mentioned.”
On the need for the state’s representatives on the board consult and liaise with the governors of the respective states, Governor Oshiomhole said “those commissioners who represent states should ensure that the views that they canvass at the commission reflect the expectations of the people of the state.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the NDDC board, Senator Henshaw Bassey Ewa, who congratulated Governor Oshiomhole on his election as the Chairman of the South-South Governors forum, describing it as well-deserved, disclosed that the visit was an opportunity to brief the governor on the vision, understandings, challenges and seek guidiance on ways forward to seek avenue of developing the Niger Delta sub-region including creating opportunities for the people.
Beyond awarding 100 over seats training to beneficiaries, the NDDC Chairman explained that the commission has embarked on a lot of projects including building roads, hostels, state offices and national Headquarters among others and that they were yet to be completed due to lack of funds running into trillions of naira.
Senator Ewa solicited the support of the governors in the Niger Delta region as it relate to the release of funds which could be tied with specific projects such as roads, rail and others stressing that this could bring benefit to the Niger Deltans as stakeholders.
While emphasizing that this was what NDDC was set up to do, he gave assurance for his unequivocal commitment to work
