The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has described as erroneous the impression in certain quarters that the Commission is not living up to its mandate of developing communities in the Niger Delta region.
Ogbuku, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 6th Meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta, NCND, at the Government House complex, Asaba, listed several achievements recorded by the NDDC in both infrastructural and human capital development.
The two-day meeting was organised by the Ministry of Niger Delta Development in collaboration with the Delta State Government and the NDDC, focused on: “Stimulating Strategies for Economic Growth and Development in the Niger Delta Region.”
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had charged the Commission to complete and commission signature projects that would impact the lives of Niger Deltans.
Following this directive, he said, the Commission would soon inaugurate the completed 132/33kv electricity sub-station it built at Ode-Erinje in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, to light up five local government areas in the state.
According to him: “Another flag-ship project ready for inauguration is the 29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe Road in Bayelsa State, which we executed in partnership with Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.”
Ogbuku remarked that the NDDC did not tell its success story well enough in the past. He gave instances of completed projects that were not celebrated in the media, citing the case of the completed 1×15MVA 33/11kv injection substation in Amufi-Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.
The NDDC boss assured that the era of not having data or evidence of projects and programmes was gone, adding the current Board and Management of the Commission had adopted strategies to showcase its activities.
Speaking on collaborations with other organisations, Ogbuku noted that the NDDC had made significant gains since it embraced Public-Private Partnership, PPP, as a major policy thrust.
One of such positive fall-outs, he said, was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between the NDDC and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, to collaborate on diverse fronts in the delivery of sustainable development projects.
In the area of health, Ogbuku said that the World Health Organisation, WHO, had agreed to partner with NDDC to implement a Health Insurance Project for the Niger Delta region.
He said that the Commission had resumed its Free Healthcare Programme which caters to the needs of rural communities, as part of the Commission’s commitment to enhance healthcare delivery to the people of the Niger Delta region.
According to Ogbuku, the free medical healthcare programme had attended to no fewer than 573, 688 patients from different communities in the region.
In the education sector, he highlighted the Foreign Post-Graduate Scholarship Programme of the Commission, noting that 2,323 students in the region had so far benefited from it. He added: “We have just published the notice for the 2024/2025 scholarship programme.”
Declaring open the Technical Committee session of the 6th meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta, the Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, stressed the need for a strategic and collaborative approach between the Federal Government and the Niger Delta states to address the challenges confronting the people of the region.
The Governor, who was represented by his deputy, Sir Monday Onyeme, lamented the environmental, security, and infrastructural challenges plaguing the region.
He observed that the Niger Delta region had been grappling with issues such as gas flaring, illegal oil bunkering, and local crude oil refining, which had resulted in environmental pollution and degradation.
The Governor said: “There is the need for strategic and collaborative approaches between the Federal and Sub-national governments in the Niger Delta region to address the hydra-headed challenges facing the people of the oil-rich states of the Niger Delta and put the region on the path of economic growth and development.
Credit:Pius Ughakpoteni
Director, Corporate Affairs
