The President, represented by Mr. Ikechukwu Emenike, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during a conference entitled: ‘President Muhammadu Buhari and the Niger Delta struggle for development’.
At the event, which was organised by a civil rights organisation, Change Ambassadors of Nigeria, an Initiative of Gatekeepers Foundation, a Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Timi Alaibe, said the Federal Government was indebted to the commission with accumulated debt of N750bn.
Buhari, while recalling in his inaugural speech, in which no other region was mentioned apart from Niger Delta, said that he was part and parcel of the region,
He promised specifically to invest heavily in Niger Delta, adding that all that was left was for the people of the region to play their part.
Buhari had said, “All we need now is peace and real commitment of peace from the Niger Delta to bring the desired development from the region because without peace nothing can work. Because of the perception of lack of peace, we need to speed up development and embrace peace in the region.
“The message of the President is that ‘I am part of you and will want to develop the area’ but I need your corporation. As I have promised, I will not only tackle the problem of Boko Haram but that of Niger Delta as well. I also promised that money will be judiciously used for development.”
Earlier in his keynote address, Alaibe listed some concrete ways which the Buhari administration would change and develop the Niger Delta including infrastructural development.
This he said could be sourced through the N750bn owed NDDC, effective participation in national economy and environmental protection.
He urged the new administration to quickly identify all ongoing, abandoned and newly awarded Federal Government projects in the region and put on a fast track completion plan, even if it required setting aside extra funds.
The ex-NDDC boss said, “Much of the funding for the above can
No comments:
Post a Comment