The Senate Committee on the Niger Delta has promised to treat the 2016<\/p>\n
budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, with speed and
\nurgency.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, said in an
\ninterview with newsmen on Saturday that the financial appropriations for
\nthe commission would be ready within one month after the passage of the
\nFederal Government\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
Senator Nwaoboshi was speaking at the end of a two-day inspection tour of
\nNDDC projects in Akwa Ibom State by the Senate committee and directors of
\nthe interventionist agency. He said: \u201cI can assure you that as soon as we
\nget the budget, we will work on it expeditiously. We are already collating
\nfacts. In fact, with what we have seen on the ground, we are set to go. As
\nsoon as the Federal Government\u2019s budget is passed, within one month, you
\ncan be sure that we will get the NDDC budget out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee chairman explained that one of the reasons for the late
\napproval of NDDC budgets in the past was because it had to wait for the
\npassage of the Federal Government\u2019s budget to know what had been allocated
\nto it.<\/p>\n
Senator Nwaoboshi said: \u201cWe will not allow what happened in the general
\nbudget to happen to the NDDC budget. This time, we are going to go through
\nthe budget line by line to determine the relevance of the projects to the
\npeople of the Niger Delta. We will see whether that is what they deserve
\nand what they demand before allocating funds for the projects. It is not
\ngoing to be a budget for projects to be scattered everywhere and nothing
\nis achieved at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should understand that we are in the 8th Senate. We are not just
\ngoing to allocate money for no particular purpose. We are going to look at
\nthe projects for which the money is being allocated. This time, if we
\nidentify a project and we think that it is relevant to the people, we will
\nmake budgetary provision for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee chairman said further: \u201cOne of the things we have gained
\nfrom our visits to the project sites is that it has exposed us to certain
\nfacts that were unknown to us previously. We are going to look at these
\nprojects and make sure that they are funded, especially those that are of
\ngreat importance to the people of the Niger Delta. It is not going to be
\nbusiness as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NDDC has asked state governments to make inputs into its 2016 budget.
\nIt is not going to be just any kind of contribution. We won\u2019t allow
\nspecial interests from government officials to use that as an opportunity
\nto feather their own nests. We are going to make sure that the proposed
\nprojects are relevant to the people of the Niger Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee had earlier inspected the 30-kilometre Nsasak Junction-Okon
\nRoad, in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Senator
\nNwaoboshi commended the contractor for the quality of work on the road. \u201cI
\nam very impressed that a Nigerian contractor did this good job. When you
\nsee this type of performance, you will be encouraged. We will recommend
\nthis company for more quality jobs. We assure the contractor that money
\nwill be appropriated for the project in the 2016 budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Managing Director of Seyang Construction, the company handling the
\nproject, Engr. Sam Inyang, said that the road would be the shortest route
\nfrom Akwa Ibom to Rivers state through Aba. He also described the road as
\nhaving huge potentials for economic benefits to the people of several
\ncommunities and local governments in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate Committee on the Niger Delta has promised to treat the 2016 budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, with speed and urgency. The Chairman of the Committee,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n