Reactions are now trailing the alleged moves by the Nigerian Senate to amend the Niger Delta Development Commission Act.
A group under the aegis of Coalition of Rivers Oil and Gas Host Communities warned the Nigerian Senate and others behind the amendment of NDDC Act to desist from doing so as the people of Niger Delta will not take it lightly.
In a statement by its Chairman, Barituka Loanyie, the group said NDDC is an interventionist agency established to address many years of neglect of Niger Delta region and not primarily to serve as a commission for oil producing states.
It further said if the government was interested in oil producing states that a commission can be established to serve oil producing states which could include all oil producing states, pointing out that NDDC was a regional development agency and therefore does not need uncontiguous states as members.
The group advised that if the government was concerned about amending an act to include other states, they could do so with the North East Development Commission and not NDDC.
The statement read in part; “The attention of the coalition of Rivers Oil and Gas Host Communities has been drawn to an ongoing attempt by the Nigerian Senate to amend the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act to include Lagos, Bauchi, Kogi and Ogun states to the Commission”.
“We wish to remind the Senate and any other secret hands behind this bill that NDDC was created to serve as an interventionist agency for the development of the Niger Delta region following years of unthinkable damage caused by oil multinationals and the degradation caused in our communities in the Niger Delta. We want to state unequivocally that we will resist any attempt to shortchange and box our people to the corner. The brunts of the activities of oil multinationals over the years of operation in the Niger Delta and Rivers State, in particular are felt directly in varying degrees in the Niger Delta communities. Villages have lost their sources of livelihood. The high contents of chemicals released into their waters, land and air through incessant oil spillage and gas flaring have a correlative negative effect on the economy, health and psychology of the people. Communities have been dislocated and several lives lost owing to multinationals unwholesome practice in the region”.
“It is common knowledge that the NDDC has been turned into mere political patronage where they give with one hand and collect with the other. We see this move as an insult to the entire people of the Niger Delta”.
“We want to remind me Federal Government and indeed the Nigerian Senate to know that this continuous exercise of trying to victimise the people of Niger Delta because some sections of the country have the illusive feeling that they have the political advantage against others will be met with legal and social actions”.
“If the Senate is concerned about the oil producing sates in Nigeria, they should come up with a bill that will create a board or a commission for the Oil producing states, that will holistically address the issues concerning the development of oil producing states in Nigeria, or alternatively add Bauchi, Lagos, Ogun, Kogi and the rest to the North East Development Commission and leave the NDDC out of it”.
Also, the South-South Youths Initiative, SSYI, said the news of the planed and merger of NDDC with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs is an attempt to trigger crisis in the region that takes care of the nation’s economy.
Leader of the group, Imeabe Oscar Saviour I a statement said the move undermines the peoples yearning for the quick inauguration of a substantive board for the agency.
The group expressed the hope that the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government would distance itself from the plan.
The statement said: “The idea of scrapping of the NDDC or merging it with any ministry is not just aimed at deepening crisis in the region, but also to destabilize the current administration.
“We want President Muhammadu Buhari should use this move to vet within his cabinet to know those of his close aides that are trying to run down his administration by painting his efforts in the Niger Delta before the people”.
“These very individuals have recolonized the NDDC so much that they can no longer account for the huge amounts of money they embezzle on daily basis from the same agency that should have been taking care of the Niger Delta people. This move is deliberate and a desperate action to cover up their tracks and ensure that they are not prosecuted because of the criminal activities that they have perpetrated in the NDDC”.
