NDDC ’ll Fail Except Restructured -Monarch

Paramount Ruler of Betem Community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mene Peter Alobari, has said that the dissolution of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Board without dealing with its over-bearing bureaucratic structure would certainly replicate the same problems facing the commission currently.
Speaking with The Tide Alobari said getting experts from Japan or wherever to run the commission would only compound the problems if it remained saturated with politicians.
According to him, “What I am saying is that there are structured problems in NDDC. You have the management, the board, you have the Governors’ Forum, you have the Senate Committee on NDDC.
“All these are avenues for some sort of patronage, and it is over-bearing’’.
“He explained that the whole idea of NDDC was supposed to be interventionist, so there was no need of going through the bureaucracy of state to get things done, pointing out that ‘’ this is why some of us who articulated the issue of Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission came up with a commission that will directly be under the presidency, which can deal directly with the people in the oil producing rural communities without the bureaucracy of the state and its attendant politics”.
Mene Alobari suggested that the NDDC should be restructured to reflect a clearly independent body and appoint persons of proven integrity into its board.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to come up with a clear mandate for the new board and not saturate it with politicians, but those who have the capacity to make the NDDC work in the overall interest of the people of the Niger Delta.

Bethel Toby