Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, the
Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has appealed
to militants to stop destroying oil and gas facilities in the Niger
Delta.
Senator Ndoma-Egba
made the plea during a courtesy visit by the Cross River State
University of Technology (CRUTECH) Alumni Association at the NDDC
Headquarters in Port Harcourt.
He
appealed to all aggrieved people in the region to call a truce because
“we are in urgent need of development in the region and it is only in an
atmosphere of peace that we can develop.”
Senator
Ndoma-Egba stressed that the issues of poverty and restiveness could
only be addressed when development was allowed to thrive, noting: “We cannot develop in an environment of militancy.”
He
said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had shown
good faith by increasing the financial allocations to the development
agencies in the Niger Delta region.
President Buhari has demonstrated goodwill in some of the steps he has taken, he stated, adding: “If you look at the 2016 budget, there is a marginal increase in everything concerning the region.
Allocation to Niger Delta Ministry went up, the budget of the NDDC went up, and the budget of the Amnesty Program went up. Now, something is being done with some urgency on the completion of the East-West Road.
We
have the Lagos-Calabar rail line and recently the Vice President Prof.
Yemi Osibanjo visited Delta State and gave very firm assurances that the
problems of the region will be addressed urgently.”
The
NDDC Chairman said that the least the people of the region could do was
to reciprocate and show good faith by halting the breaches in oil and
gas infrastructure, lamenting that such criminal activities were
detrimental to the interest of the region, as they were more like
“shooting ourselves in the feet.”
Senator Ndoma-Egba acknowledged
the importance of education in changing the mind-set of the youths who
were sometimes prone to restiveness. He said: “The real resources of a
nation are its youths. But the youths remain a resource only if they
are educated and skilled to be empowered. If the youths are not
educated, skilled and empowered, it becomes a challenge.”
He
said that it was, therefore, necessary to get the youths empowered
through education, which was what CRUTECH and other institutions were
doing. He added: “One of the mandates of the NDDC is to create a
regional economy, a proper economy in a secure and peaceful environment.
And to advance that mandate, this Commission will continue to support
tertiary institutions in the zone.
“I
want to say that this Commission under my leadership will be committed
to education in the Niger Delta, so that the youths of the region will
be the resource that the nation will depend on.”
The
President of the CRUTECH Alumni Association, Mr Eyam Abang, told the
NDDC Chairman that the university was a project of the people and
government of Cross Rivers State, adding that he was one of the founding
fathers of the institution that
had produced men and women who were competing and contributing
significantly to the social-economic development of the country.
He
identified some of the challenges facing the university, especially in
the area of infrastructure, and appealed for support for its plans to
contribute in addressing the challenges. In this regard, he said that
the alumni were in the process of building a 500-seat auditorium to help
in resolving infrastructural inadequacies in the university.
Mr Abang said that the high
capacity auditorium would include a conference hall, an IT center,
indoor sports hall, among other facilities. According to him, the
association was eager to bridge the gap and take students attention away
from vices like cultism, prostitution and vandalism.
In
another courtesy visit to the NDDC Chairman, members of the National
Association of Cross Rivers State Indigenes in Diaspora, Port Harcourt
Chapter, sought the assistance of the Commission to further advance the
course of development.
The Chairman of
the association, Mr Jacob Iwara, said that the 1,200-member group was
interested in helping to sow the seeds of growth in the society. “We seek to provide help and foster unity among our members,” he said, and appealed for assistance from the NDDC.
He
stated that the association had been able to empower some of its
members in vocational training and wished it could do more if it had the
financial resources.
Senator
Ndoma-Egba remarked that it was important for an interest group to
identify and focus its energy towards a common cause, adding that the
association should strive to be good ambassadors of Cross Rivers State
wherever the members found themselves.
He
assured them that the NDDC would continue to support programmes that
would empower the youths of the country, including members of the
association.
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