Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has released a list of 2,506 projects completed in the nine states of the Niger Delta within the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, from 2015 till 2022.
The publication was targeted at silencing critics, who were allegedly branding the Commission as a failure.
The publication, it was learnt, was part of the new transparent and accountable leadership initiated by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana.
The lists showed projects, their costs, contractors, benefitting communities, institutions and dates they were awarded to the firms.
Some of the projects undertaken by the Commission were roads, shore protection, solar water, buildings, desilting, electricity, canalisation, among others.
While road projects dominated the list, hundreds of communities were listed as beneficiaries of the projects.
The Director, Corporate Affairs, NDDC, Dr. Ibitoye Abosede, explained that the publication was in response to an increasing demand for accountability by members of the public.
He said: “The NDDC is aware of an increasing need to be seen to be more accountable to the public and to conduct our affairs in a more transparent manner.
“Entrenching the tenets of Accountability and transparency in our activities, forms a part of the thrust of the new leadership supervised by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umana Okon Umana.
“The purpose of this publication is to give the communities where the project is located the opportunity to verify and confirm that the listed projects were actually completed.”
Abosede urged the public to go through the list to help the commission hold the contractors to account, where they failed to deliver according to expectation.
He said: “We want to reassure Niger Delta stakeholders that we will continue to be accountable and transparent to the public in the conduct of our affairs.
“In addition to the project listed in this publication, the NDDC website (www NDDC.gov.ng) has a project database, which contains a comprehensive list of all the projects of the commission from inception, 2001 till date.
“We, therefore, urge members of the public to always visit our website, which is easily accessible to keep abreast of the commission’s projects across the Niger Delta region.”
