lThe National Vice Chairman, South-South zone of the All Progressive
\nCongress, APC, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has charged the Niger Delta
\nDevelopment Commission, NDDC, to focus on new areas that will ensure
\nsustainable development in the region in the days beyond oil.<\/p>\n
Ntufam Eta called for the paradigm shift when he led members of the APC
\nSouth-South Zone Working Committee to pay a courtesy visit to the Board
\nand Management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, at the
\nCommission\u2019s headquarters in Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n
The party chairman suggested an emphasis on Information Communication
\nTechnology, ICT, as one of the sectors that would serve the region well
\nwhen oil eventually takes the backstage. He said: \u201cPerhaps it will help to
\nimpact on the unemployment time bomb that is everywhere today in Nigeria
\nand more so in the Niger Delta. It will also be a worthy legacy to leave
\nin the region when oil begins to dry up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another area, he stated, is for NDDC to look into small and medium scale
\nenterprises, adding: \u201cWe can devise and create a method where our people
\nwill partner with the NDDC to create an industrial base that would ignite
\nthe development of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ntufam Eta said that the establishment of NDDC had brought many good
\nthings to the region.\u201cI think that the work of this Commission is
\nobvious,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that was obvious on my way to Port Harcourt from
\nCalabar, where I saw the good work you had done on the Uyo Calabar road.
\nWhat would have happened had the NDDC not intervened on that road, because
\nwe were aware of the monumental degradation that has visited that road.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, amongst other things, we have to thank the NDDC for coming to restore
\nthat road. Today, that road is remarkably different. Spread across the
\nregion are roads, hospitals and infrastructure that the NDDC in the past
\n17 years of its existence has brought to the region, and so the place of
\nthe NDDC in the development of the region is assured.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said
\nthat the visit of the APC leaders in the South-South was historic and
\ntimely, noting that the current board was the first under an APC
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
He stated that the visit reinforced confidence in the NDDC and its
\nstakeholders that the Federal Government and the ruling APC were genuinely
\ninterested in the development of the Niger Delta, noting that being the
\nfirst board under the APC-led administration, the members were bound by
\nthe philosophy of the party which emphasised change.<\/p>\n
Senator Ndoma-Egba stressed the need for the NDDC to return to its
\noriginal mandate, \u201cwhich is the creation of a prosperous regional economy
\nof the Niger Delta,\u201d and identified ICT as a key driver for the regional
\neconomy which would guarantee peace, prosperity and security in the
\nregion.<\/p>\n
He said the Commission had also identified other key drivers, such as
\nagriculture, manufacturing, small scale or large scale, sports and other
\nareas for engagement and underlined the need to engage the youths and make
\nthem competitive through ICT, sports and a deliberate youth empowerment
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
Senator Ndoma-Egba expressed confidence in the ability of the Commission
\nto turn the youths of the region into a real resource for the nation. \u201cThe
\nreal resource a nation or state,\u201d he reiterated, \u201cis not the minerals
\nunder the sun. It is the young men and women who have received education
\nand are skilled, who are competitive and who are productive. So, our
\nmandate is to create an economy that would bring out the talents of our
\nyouths and create an environment for them to express those talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to make our systems and processes as transparent as
\npossible so that we can be accountable to the people that we serve. If we
\nare more transparent, we will encourage the stakeholders, the Federal
\nGovernment, the oil companies and the development partners to do much more
\nthan they are doing right now with the Commission for the development of
\nthe Niger Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Ndoma-Egba said that the Board and Management of the NDDC was
\ndetermined to change the narrative of the Commission, because, he said,
\n\u201cWe want to change the story of the Commission. We want to change the song
\nof the Commission, so that we can also change the narrative, the story and
\nthe song of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
lThe National Vice Chairman, South-South zone of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has charged the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to focus on new areas that will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n