Minister charges NDDC to do more for Niger Delta

Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, has charged the new management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to do more for the development of the Niger Delta region.

The minister was speaking at the NDDC headquarters in Port-Harcourt, when he paid a working visit to the new management team of the commission.

He was accompanied by the Minister of state, Prof. Claudius Daramola, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Aminu Aliyu-Bisalla and other directors of the supervising ministry.

Pastor Usani stated that the current NDDC management, being an interim one, was expected to do more for the people of the Niger Delta than a regular board, adding that “we expect every functionary and staff of the commission to appreciate this fact and put up the very best efforts in the performance of their duties.”

“Brief as this management may be, we are charging you to put in your best. There is a lot that can be achieved, especially as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari continues for the next four years.”

He emphasized that the policy of the Buhari administration was that there would be nothing like abandoned projects and is responsible for the administration’s continuation and execution of projects started 20-30 years ago by previous governments.

He urged the NDDC management and staff to recognize the important and special place they occupy in the development of Niger Delta and in the bigger economic picture of Nigeria.

According to the minister, it may be too early to assess the performance of the new management team, “but, it is essential for us to know that the task for the management is a greater burden than it would have been if it has longer time to stay.”

He said that his ministry would continue to supervise the commission to ensure that it performed maximally because the performance of NDDC goes a long way to determine the forms of agitations from the restive oil rich region.

He added: “I will be pleased to have a peaceful environment for the period you will be in charge of affairs in the commission.”

Earlier in his remarks, the NDDC acting Managing Director, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, said that in the absence of the commission’s board, the minister is the supervising authority, stating that “it is only fair and wise that he comes once in a while to see how we are faring and to see whether we are following laid down procedures.”

According to him, the new management of the commission was working tirelessly to deliver on its mandate within the shortest possible time.

Prof. Brambaifa said that henceforth, payment to contractors would be made promptly without unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks, noting that the commission has fine-tuned its processes and had started using a more efficient procedure in paying for projects and meeting its financial obligations.

Also, the NDDC acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mr. Chris Amadi, said the commission was very much aware of the need to fast-track the development of the Niger Delta region and was appropriately taking directives from its supervising ministry.

He declared that “We took up payments of contractors who have been owed for years. We made sure that those which fell under N10 million got their payments even in their homes.

We are now compiling payments for N20-N30million. We have also paid for the water hyacinths and some of the palliatives and interventions which the commission set out to address the challenges of youth restiveness to ensure peace in the region.”

He said further: “We have paid major contractors to motivate them to go back to site and complete their projects. We have commitments from several of them that projects are on-going and will soon be completed.”