Youths of the oil producing Niger Delta
region have warned the in-coming
administration of Major General Muham-
madu Buhari against reducing the Niger
Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to a
parastatal under the Ministry of Niger Delta
Affairs.
The warning came against the backdrop of
the alleged plan by the next government to
implement the recommendations of the Steve
Oransaye Committee Report on the
rationalization and merger of some Federal
Government Ministries, Departments and
Agencies, MDAs.
Rising from a meeting in Warri, Delta State,
at the weekend, a coalition, comprising 26
youth and ex-militant groups under the aegis
South- South Mandate, vowed to resist any
move that could impede the rapid
transformation of the region currently being
undertaken by the NNDC.
According to the youths, in a communiqué
signed by the Chief Convener, Mr. Victor
Akpe, making the NDDC a parastatal under
the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs would
mean bogging the commission’s projects
down with civil service bureaucracy.
“In as much as we grudgingly decided to
allow peace to reign after we were dubiously
and maliciously rigged out of the presidency,
our reluctant acceptance of that faulty March
28, 2015 electoral abracadabra over a sitting
President from Niger Delta, a charade never
recorded in the history of electoral contest in
Nigeria, should not be misconstrued as
capitulation by the youth of Niger Delta, now
galvanized under the South-south Mandate,
SSM,”the youths said.
“While we are still evaluating the import of
March 28, 2015 presidential poll robbery
through a well-orchestrated regional gang-
up, procedural compromise and massive
intimidation of the electorate in some parts of
the country, we shall vehemently resist
further humiliation and annihilation of our
people”.
The youths noted in the
communiqué which was made available to
newsmen in Abuja, that as the closest
government interventionist agency to the
poor and neglected people of the Niger Delta
region, they would not tolerate any attempt to
further suffocate the NDDC since it remained
the only government agency that has direct
impact on the oil bearing communities.
“Niger Deltans shall no longer allow their
interest to be subjugated and trampled upon
by the Federal Government of Nigeria under
whatever guise”, they added.
They contended that if part of the reasons for
the planned merger was based on some
frivolous complaints of non-performance
against the agency by some disgruntled
individuals, the Federal Government should
be held responsible for its refusal to release
over N700billion statutory funds owed the
agency which would have gone a long way in
executing its projects and programmes.
While emphasizing that the NDDC must be
allowed to function independently under the
presidency as presently constituted and be
allowed to continue to draw its funding from
the current First-Line charge, the youths
warned that they neither issue threats
without a cause, nor strike without
exhausting all possible channels of
consultation and seeking redress.
Rather
than merge the commission with the
ministry, the youths urged the incoming
Buhari adminis-tration to release the entire
N700 billion being owed it and ensure
prompt release of its funds, subsequently.
No comments:
Post a Comment