Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has expressed willingness to support the Niger Delta Development Commission in its quest to refocus its task of fast-tracking development in the Niger Delta region.
Okorocha said this at the Imo State Government House, Owerri, when he played host to the NDDC board, led by its chairman, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN.
In a release by the NDDC chairman’s Special Assistant on Communications, Clara Braide, Okorocha said NDDC needed the support and partnership of key stakeholders to turn things around in the oil-rich region.
He expressed optimism that the new NDDC team would change the narrative, adding, “This is the time for me and my people to smile.”
He added, “I want NDDC to do something about its image and when it does, I will be the person to sing its song loud to Abuja and to the whole world.”
The governor appealed to the NDDC board to always inform his government about projects to be executed in Imo State.
The chairman of the NDDC board, Ndoma-Egba, told the governor that one of the first decisions taken by the board was the re-activation of all NDDC dormant organs.
One such important organ, according to him, was the Advisory Committee made up of all the governors of the NDDC member states and two other members appointed by the President.
Ndoma-Egba noted that it was necessary to revive the Advisory Committee because the NDDC must work with the government of member states to ensure that they took ownership of its projects and programmes, as well as check the duplication of projects.
He added, “We want to maximise the scarce resources that we have, so that we can achieve as much as we can in other to create a regional economy in the Niger Delta.”
He said that for NDDC to achieve maximum efficiency, it must move away from the usual annual budgets that sometimes contradict previous budgets, stating that what was needed was a Master Plan for the region, adding that the Niger Delta Regional Master Plan, launched in 2007 had largely been unimplemented 10 years after.
“So we have to agree whether to terminate that Master Plan, update it or upgrade it. But a Master Plan is needed so that our annual budgets will be annual incremental steps towards achieving the vision of the plan,” Ndoma-Egba said.
He regretted that the story of the NDDC was not most edifying, adding, “We want to change that story. We want to change that narrative. We want to change that song, not just for the NDDC, but for the region and the member states of the region.
“To change the story, to change the song, to change the narrative, we have to do things differently and to do things differently; we want to change our processes. We want to strengthen our systems, strengthen our monitoring capacity and our personnel to achieve just two objectives, accountability to the people we serve and those who fund us and transparency. This will make our development partners to have more confidence in the Commission and give us even greater assistance so that we can bring greater good to the member states of the commission.
He assured the governor that the NDDC board “will bring new energy, new urgency, and new vision, to the development of the Niger Delta.”
The visiting team included the NDDC Managing Director, Mr. Nsima Ekere, the Executive Director Finance and Administration, Mr. Mene Derek, Executive Director Projects, Engr. Samuel Adjogbe, and other members of the Board.
