By: Felix Ikpotor
The Rivers State representative on the management board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Tony Okocha, has disclosed that a total of 953 projects of the commission are abandoned across the state.
Okocha made the disclosure in Port Harcourt during an interactive session with the Rivers Council of Traditional Rulers.
The board member who expressed worry about the number of abandoned projects, said the situation was the more reason he and his team are working in earnest to correct the anomalies.
“Looking at our papers, I got a bit worried because I know that at the end of my stay in the office, it is like a student who has to write an examination and at the end of the examination you will show your report card. And I know that at the end of my stay in the NDDC, I will be required to show my report card. So, from day one what we did was to hit the ground running.
“In my study, it was clear to me that Rivers State is number two in terms of the states that have more abandoned projects. Rivers State has 953 abandoned projects of NDDC. And these projects are dotted along and across the nook and crannies of the state,” Okocha stated.
Okocha who is also the Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State urged the traditional rulers to monitor projects sited in their domains.
He noted that frequent changes of members of the board has contributed to the plethora of abandoned projects of the commission.
“We find out that some of these projects were abandoned because of the splitting nature of some boards that will come and award their own contracts.
“One of the things that have bedeviled this developmental stride is the inconsistencies of government.
“Three months down the line a board is set up, and after three months the same board is dissolved and within the period that they existed, they would have awarded contracts to people to go and work.
“Sometimes they work with no mobilisation; sometimes people get their money to go to the field and once they get the money paid, that’s one scam and another one is that the boards are now dissolved. And the new board will have a tendency of awarding different jobs so that they will also make their own name and get their own cuts and that has been our own problem.”
He however, promised that the commission under his watch as the state representative would focus more on both human capital and infrastructural development.
The Rivers representative said the interactive session was necessitated by the desire of the current NDDC Board to change the negative trajectory of the Commission.
He said: “It was the decision of the Board that we will lead a different example. We have started the process of a change, which also conforms with Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda for Nigeria”.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Finance and Administration, EDFA, Boma Iyaye, disclosed the 200 per cent increase in the commission’s 2024 budget.
“The Federal Government has approved N300 billion for the Niger Delta region. That is a very serious leap from what it used to be. We used to be in the region of N109 billion for the entire region, but in 2024, it has moved from about N100 billion to N300 billion,” he said.
“It means more money for the states, more money for Rivers State. And the board and management in their wisdom are trying to see how states will get higher allocations, especially the big states. So we are voting whopping sums for development in these states,” he said.
The EDFA further stated that Rivers State, as a major source of the national revenue will get its fair share of development based on the agreed formula.
“Rivers State, as has been said is one of the major producers of revenue that we share in this country. If you put the other states together, the entire Niger Delta region produces about 80-90 per cent of the entire revenue that accrues to our dear country and so the region is very important.
“Nobody will toy with it and no government or administration will toy with the Niger Delta region. And that is why you can see that the president think it important to increase our budget,” he stated.
Earlier in his remarks, chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, HM, Ohna Seargent Awuse, expressed his gratitude to the NDDC representative for the visit.
He noted that it was first of its kind to the council since the inception of the commission and blessed him for the show of respect and recognition to members of the council, praying God to help him succeed in the office.
