From Ameachi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta Correspondent)
Inaugurating the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board already screened and cleared by the Senate is the only solution to current problems in the agency, King Obukowho Whiskey, the Udurhie 1, Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom has told President Muhammadu Buhari.
The monarch in a statement made available to reporters in Asaba, noted that Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry cannot dictate to the people of the region how the agency should be run.
The royal father maintained that the relative peace in the region was being threatened by those he termed individual interest promoters.
He said: “As a major stakeholder in the Niger Delta project, I cannot pretend that all is well in our dear region with daily developments selfishly targeted to ignite fresh crisis over deliberate refusal by President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the already screened and confirmed NDDC Board under the chairmanship of Dr Pius Odubu, with Chief Bernard Okumagba as the Managing Director.
“It is instructive to note that the signals coming from the region are making natural rulers like me worried because no right thinking person will sit aloof while his or her house is set on fire.
“It is becoming very clear that the Honourable Minister of the Niger Delta, Obong Godswill Obot Akpabio, is a merchant of many bad products that are not good enough for our people’s consumption.
“If not, how on earth can a statutory Federal Government agency suddenly become a private enterprise of Obong Akpabio that its leadership keeps changing dangerously without input of other critical stakeholders?
The royal father stated that the NDDC is a common concern of the people of the Niger Delta and as such no individual, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to run it aground.
He called on President Buhari to urgently rise to the occasion by stopping what he termed “this very offensive macabre dance” before the situation would become uncontrollable.
The monarch maintained that Sole Administratorship was not known to the Act that established the NDDC, hence he could not support any form of dictatorship in the running of the agency by the appointment of a sole administrator.
According to him, “We cannot afford another round of crisis in the region now and everything must be done within the confines of the Nigerian constitution to ensure that the Niger Delta region is not deliberately thrown into uncontrollable crisis by urgently inaugurating the already screened and confirmed statutory board of NDDC under the headship of Dr Pius Odubu and the Managing Director, Chief Bernard Okumagba.
“Furthermore, the NDDC, as an agency of the Federal Government, should urgently be returned to the Presidency as it was in the beginning to avoid further individual control.”
