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Make NDDC Accountable To Niger Delta People – INC Boss

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Alabotubo Charles Harry is the President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) worldwide. During a live Radio programme in Port Harcourt last Monday, he stated the position of the Ijaw apex organisation on the forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that the Interim Management Board of the commission led by Dr. Joy Nunieh should not be tampered with. He also spoke on the just concluded Governorship election in Bayelsa State. The Tide correspondent, Dennis Naku who monitored the programme presents this report. Excerpts.
Would you say happenings in Ijaw land in the last couple of months have been a good tiding for the people?
Elections are for the people to decide for themselves where they want to go whether we like where they have gone or not is not the issue here. What is an issue here is that the will of the people have taken place in Bayelsa and Bayelsa State cannot and will not be ruled through surrogates or God-fathers. For me I think where the people want to be is good tidings. A lot of people have few constraints here and there about what they feel about the elected or the Governor-elect. But I think that is not an issue.
What is the view of the INC on the forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari?
I think it is a welcome development. I mean the Ijaw nation considering the 13 per cent derivation, the NDDC, the Amnesty Programme and the Ministry for the Niger Delta should have done much way better than it is doing. It is doing really poorly and I think an audit into the NDDC in particular, which is an interventionist agency to take care of certain developmental aspect of the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta in general is a core place to begin.
Many Ijaw sons have held sway at NDDC, yet nothing seems to be coming to the Ijaw nation?
The real problem with the NDDC is the constitutional arrangement put in place. The NDDC act is set to fail. It is created in such a way that it puts a lot of power and puts the helmsmen in the NDDC under too much strain from extraneous quarters where they must kow tow to the dictates of the people who beat the drum, the senators, members of the House of Representatives, people in the executive. And you laden it up also with extraneous bodies like directors from the North East, North Central, North West, South West etcetera. All these things were time bombs that are now playing themselves out. I think the essence of this audit on the affairs of the NDDC is necessary because we need to find out why so much money has been pumped into the NDDC and it is not working. And the problem we are facing today, the fight against the Interim Management Board is because the same powers that be do not want that audit to succeed. Because if it does, maybe, we will get to a position where the NDDC Act will be amended to remove the overbearing influences that curtail its abilities to achieve its set aims.
The region has NDDC and Ministry of Niger Delta, one may be tempted to ask how come you are complaining of underdevelopment or do you think it is an orchestration to blackmail the region?
I will want to say that a lot of the faults belong to us at home here (Niger Delta). We must take the bull by the horns and accept responsibility for a great number of the things that have gone wrong. We have members representing us at the National Assembly who should have asked for an amendment of the laws blackmail, yes it is because if the Niger Delta Ministry cannot build the East West Road in over, it is close to 10 years since that Ministry was created and one major artery that takes the bulk of the products because the industrial hub of Nigeria sits here into the developed quarters of Lagos and the Ports cannot be fixed, then something is deliberately wrong. I believe and I am not in any way controverted to say that there is more to it than meets the eye.
You said one of the biggest challenge is the NDDC Act itself though you support the forensic audit. Do you think the rot might not go away unless the NDDC Act is changed?
Correctly so. The truth of the matter is that I even see the process of amending the NDDC Act being truncated because we saw the hurry with which the National Assembly went on to confirm a list that in itself is an abrogation of the principles and practices of the NDDC Act itself. People were put there surreptitiously and now an Interim Management Board was put in for one purpose. Not to issue contract, but to go and try to find out what is the problem going on there. The Interim Management Board as led by Dr. Joy Nunieh is supposed to just go in there and create an enabling environment for internationally reputed companies to do a forensic audit and see why trillions of Naira has been put into this place (NDDC) and it is not working.
It is not working because the budget of the NDDC is approved by the National Assembly. The two Houses and their oversight bodies always scream of and do not carry out the contracts.
Don’t you think people that the Niger Delta should also share the blame for the underdevelopment of the region rather than trading blames?
I have agreed that there is need for the forensic audit. But what I am insisting on is that the Interim Management Board must not be tampered with because the source of the problem is the oversight function that has been given through the Act to certain people. The Interim Management Board does not owe its loyalty to the National Assembly. Its job is clear and distinct, go clear the rot. But I am saying that after the rot is cleared, let us also clear the debilitating factors. Let us deal with what is causing this problem ab initio and not the causative reactions. The problem if you remember under the Onene, I believe the first Managing Director of the NDDC, the problem was not much, but now every NDDC leadership owes all its life to some people in the National Assembly. That is unacceptable.
The NDDC was established and put under the presidency for a reason. It wanted to address the issue of underdevelopment and agitations in the region so that we can have a seamless way of producing oil and selling our oil. We in the Niger Delta are complaining of degradation, of dehumanization. That is what NDDC should take care of. What has happened to the master plan that came out from Timi Alaibe? It’s been dumped. All they do in NDDC is issue contracts without milestones. Knowing what have we achieved, where are we going and what should be done? Joy Nunieh’s board is not to take us forward. It is to look behind because the truth remains, and it is incontrovertible that until and unless the foundation on which we build the superstructure called NDDC is sustainably corrected, that is why I go to the Act, nothing good can be put on it. That is my position.
What will you want changed in the present NDDC Act?
First and foremost the NDDC Act must make the NDDC accountable to the Niger Delta itself. Once you make it accountable to the National Assembly, then it cannot carry what it is set up to achieve. Check the North East Development Commission today, the Act setting it up is quite different from the NDDC Act, why is that? There are no extraneous bodies in that commission. But for today, all I am interested in is that let a forensic audit be carried out and let those fat cows sitting at the National Assembly be put to the knife so that we can see whether they were doing their job of oversight or becoming cake sharers and developers of their own pecuniary interest rather than the interest of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is at fault. We have been slovenly, we have been very lazy in our intellectual and idiosyncratical attitude towards the NDDC. We only ask for crumbs to come to us rather than to ask where is that trillion? Where is that development? And challenge to know who are the contractors, what are the timelines and why is it not delivered? That is the crux of the matter!
That is the way to go because we have what it takes. We have the will to do it. So I am saying we will call a coalition of intellectual thinkers together that can think out a way through to solve this problem because we cannot continue to play the ostrich and sit down and watch what is going on go wrong. All we want from the Federal Government for now is that the Interim Management Board should not be hampered and that Dr. Joy Nunieh who I know personally as an amazon with a great heart can do this job without fear or favour. She will unearth the rot.

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Nwodo, Secondus Hail New PDP National Secretary, NWC

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Two former National Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo and Prince Uche Secondus, have congratulated the new National Secretary of the party, Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye.
They also expressed gratitude to members of the National Working Committee (NWC) for standing firm in defence of the rule of law and party discipline.
The two former national chairmen said this in a joint statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
Media adviser to Prince Secondus, Mr. Ike Abonyi, made this public in a statement he signed on their behalf.
He quoted both men as saying that by recognising Chief Ude-Okoye, the party leadership had demonstrated its total commitment to the rule of law and rightly portrayed the party as a truly democratic institution.
He said, “Nwodo and Secondus warned the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Federal Government to allow the opposition parties to breathe, as a strong opposition is the right measure for vibrant democracy all over the world.”
According to him, the two former chairmen also commended the PDP Governors Forum, the Board of Trustees (BoT), and particularly the chairman of the Governors Forum, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, for being resolute in defense of the rule of law.
The experienced party leaders advised the new secretary and the members of the NWC to work towards strengthening the party to position it as the party to beat in the subsequent elections.
The party leaders also advised the party leadership to be forward-looking and not allow their acrimonious past to affect their vision for the party.

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No Delta Assembly PDP Lawmaker Defecting To APC – Majority Leader

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caucus in the Delta State House of Assembly, on Wednesday, said that none of the assembly members was warming up to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Majority Leader of the House, Mr Emeka Nwaobi, said this in Asaba while reacting to the allegation that 10 out of the 22 members of the assembly were planning on joining the APC.
Mr Nwaobi said that all the 22 PDP members in the House were irrevocably committed to the thrust of the party, and their loyalty to the PDP was unquestionable.
He, however, disclosed that five out of the seven APC members in the assembly were already indicating interest in joining the PDP, adding that their defection plan was already in the pipeline.
Similarly, the Speaker, Rt Hon. Dennis Guwor, advised residents of the state, particularly PDP faithful, to discountenance such allegations.
According to him, members of the party were solidly loyal to the party’s ideals in the House.
“There is no doubt that the 22 members of the PDP in the state house of assembly are intact. There is no indication anywhere that any member of the party is planning to join any other party.
“Rather, there is strong indication that no fewer than five out of the seven members of the APC in the House are already warming up to join the PDP.
“So let me use this forum to inform them that the umbrella is wide enough to accommodate as many that are interested in joining us,” he said.

 

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Rivers Assembly Tasks LGAs On Youth Restiveness …Confirms Assembly, LG Service Commissions

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The Rivers State House of Assembly has called on local government chairmen in the state to aggressively tackle violent disturbances in the local government areas through empowerment schemes.
Deputy Speaker and Chairman, House Committee on Local Government Affairs, Rt Hon. Timothy Adolphus, gave the charge when the Committee visited Akuku-toru, Degema and Asari-toru local government areas on an on-the-spot assessment of projects inspection as part of its oversight function.
The Deputy Speaker, who noted that lack of empowerment or job creation brings about agitations, said the youths’ involvement in criminal activities could be reduced to the barest minimum if they’re meaningfully engaged.
Also speaking, the House Leader, Hon Sokari Goodboy, said the committee’s visit was not to ridicule any chairman, adding that the administration in the state has placed emphasis on the principle of checks and balances.
Hon. Goodboy stressed the need for council chairmen to replicate the good examples of Governor Siminalayi Fubara in their various councils, especially in projects execution and empowerment of the people.
According to him, Governor Fubara had spread development projects to all the 23 local government areas in the state and therefore enjoined them to replicate same in their council areas, adding that it is by so doing that the people at the grassroots would feel the impact of Governor Fubara’s administration.
The Committee, however, commended the various council chairmen for doing a good job and urged them to redouble their efforts in projects execution and empowerment of the people.
In Akuku-toru Local Government Area, the Chairman, Mrs Tonye Briggs-Oniyide, said her administration was following in the footsteps of Governor Fubara.
She said her mantra is service before self, adding that her administration had embarked on impactful projects that will benefit the people such as renovation of Obonoma health center and the doctors quarters; renovation of the local government headquarters to provide conducive work environment for the staff and strengthened security in the area.
According to her, the Abonnema cemetery was being reconstructed and remodelled, while her administration has given the people of Abonnema 18 hours power supply while empowering them in various capacities.
On his part, the Chairman of Degema Local Government Area, Dr Agiriye Harry, said his administration had carried out several renovation work at the council secretariat, procured 150 solar lights, configured and renovated some health centers and empowered about 200 widows.
The Chairman of Asari-toru Local Government Area, Engr Sule Amachree, on his part, informed the Committee that all projects executed by his administration followed due process as transparency is his watch word.
He said his aim was to embark on projects that would increase the internally generated revenue of the council, adding that his administration has made arrangements to attract the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to the local government, functional judicial system as well as sustainable housing programme to create jobs for the youths.
The committee had earlier visited Abua/Odual ,Ogba Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas where similar charges were given.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State House of Assembly has screened and confirmed chairmen and members of the Rivers State Assembly Service Commission and the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission.
Those screened and confirmed for the Rivers State Assembly Service Commission were: Dr Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja, chairman; Barr Jones Ogbonda; Dr Kennedy Ebeku; Mr Soberekon Clark and Engr Kingston Sylvanus.
For the local government service commission, the House screened and confirmed GoodLife Ben as chairman, Chief Emmanuel Jaja, Mrs Betty Warmate, Barr Jerome Chimenem, Barr Philip Okparaji and Mr Christian Amadi.

John Bibor

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