President Muhammadu Buhari has advised the people of Niger Delta to embrace peace in order to allow his administration effect positive changes and massive development in the area.
The President, represented by Mr. Ikechukwu Emenike, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during a conference entitled: ‘President Muhammadu Buhari and the Niger Delta struggle for development’.
The President, represented by Mr. Ikechukwu Emenike, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during a conference entitled: ‘President Muhammadu Buhari and the Niger Delta struggle for development’.
At the event, which was organised by a civil rights organisation, Change Ambassadors of Nigeria, an Initiative of Gatekeepers Foundation, a Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Timi Alaibe, said the Federal Government was indebted to the commission with accumulated debt of N750bn.
Buhari, while recalling in his inaugural speech, in which no other region was mentioned apart from Niger Delta, said that he was part and parcel of the region,
He promised specifically to invest heavily in Niger Delta, adding that all that was left was for the people of the region to play their part.
Buhari had said, “All we need now is peace and real commitment of peace from the Niger Delta to bring the desired development from the region because without peace nothing can work. Because of the perception of lack of peace, we need to speed up development and embrace peace in the region.
“The message of the President is that ‘I am part of you and will want to develop the area’ but I need your corporation. As I have promised, I will not only tackle the problem of Boko Haram but that of Niger Delta as well. I also promised that money will be judiciously used for development.”
Earlier in his keynote address, Alaibe listed some concrete ways which the Buhari administration would change and develop the Niger Delta including infrastructural development.
This he said could be sourced through the N750bn owed NDDC, effective participation in national economy and environmental protection.
He urged the new administration to quickly identify all ongoing, abandoned and newly awarded Federal Government projects in the region and put on a fast track completion plan, even if it required setting aside extra funds.
The ex-NDDC boss said, “Much of the funding for the above can be sourced from the statutory contributions being owed NDDC by the Federal Government from President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Administration till the end of President Goodluck Jonathan’s years.
“That debt is reported to now stand at a humongous amount of over N750bn. Also, as originally proposed by the late President Umaru Yar Adua, a special fund should be earmarked and ring-fenced to undertake these interventions and minimise incapacitating bureaucratic delays.”
He also suggested the re-activation of the repositioning of NDDC that was started during the late Yar Adua’s administration but later stalled.
Alaibe added, “This would include a review of the governance and oversight system to improve organisational efficiency and accountability. Also required is the installation of effective executive management and project management capacities, along with appropriate business control systems to enhance transparency and mandate delivery.
“The combination of all these will help to plug leakages and displace such short-sighted practices as the annual spending of billions of Naira on contracts for clearing of water hyacinth and bazaars of endless new contract awards and abandonment of previously budgeted-for and ongoing projects which have now thrown NDDC into deep technical insolvency.”
The Chairman on the occasion and former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, urged the people of Niger Delta to embrace peace and support the Buhari-led administration.
According to him, Buhari is the only man since Nigeria’s independence, to have prepared fully to be President, having been armed with a Nigerian Project document on governance since 2002.
In the same vein, the Chief host and convener of CAN, Mr. Blessing Agbomhere, said they identified with Buhari because he would bring development to not only the Niger Delta region but all over the country.
