Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide has urged the Senate not to delay in the screening of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board nominees to avoid unnecessary politicking capable of derailing the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari and aborting the collective hope of the Niger Delta.
This is as the IYC also commended Buhari for nominating a seasoned administrator from Bayelsa State, Chief Samuel Ogbuku, as the substantive Managing Director of the commission.
The President of the IYC, Timothy Peter Igbifa, in a statement issued yesterday, said the announcement of the much-awaited board members on the floor of the Senate had brought a relief to the council and all stakeholders in the region.
He said the proposed board, when inaugurated, would reestablish the democratic administration of the commission as envisaged by the Act establishing the NDDC, and era of autocratic impunity of the interventionist agency will be gone.
Igbifa recalled how his council and other well-meaning stakeholders sustained their protests against the concepts of a sole administrative model alien to the NDDC Act to run the affairs of the commission.
According to him, “We were relentless in mobilising our people in the Niger Delta to resist the sole administration foisted on NDDC that negated the principles of equity, fairness and justice enshrined in the Act, which stipulates that a board with representatives from all the member states must at all time run the affairs of the commission.
“We are happy that our efforts as a council have paid off and we commend President Buhari for doing the right thing. It is better late than never.”
He said the nomination of Chief Samuel Ogbuku, a Bayelsan from Ogbia Local Government Area, as the substantive managing director, was in agreement with the NDDC Act, insisting that “it is the right of Bayelsa State to produce the managing director.”
Igbifa described Ogbuku as a well-read seasoned administrator, who understood the problems and challenges of the Niger Delta with the capacity to confront them, insisting that his appointment was deserved.
