Wike Laments over NDDC
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has accused politicians of turning the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) into a cash cow for themselves.
He stated this on Tuesday during the commissioning of the Police Barracks, Special Protection Unit (SPU) base six at Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
According to him, “NDDC has been a cash cow for politicians.”
“You will see competition who will be the Managing Director, Executive Director (Finance), Executive Director (Projects).
“These are people who will make sure money is available for politics. You have portfolio contractors from Abuja.
The Governor said the NDDC problem is not just for the Niger Delta region but the entire country. He recalled that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, that the Commission would change to meet the needs of the region’s people and stressed that it was time for the Commission to work.
Wike further blasted some lawmakers in the National Assembly who he said lobbies for projects to be included in the NDDC budget. He lamented that the Commission lacks synergy with the state governments in the region.
He said such actions put the Commission in tight corners as they sometimes distort plans by the government, and the people would likely miss what they would have benefited from. The Governor pointed the incident when he filed a lawsuit against the NDDC, accusing them of picking up a project in a state which distorted the government’s plan.
He added, “I took NDDC to court, and we defeated them. You enter somebody’s state, and you don’t even know the state’s development plan and start distorting the state’s development plan.
“The road you want to do is not your road. You won’t liaise with the state to say, ‘look what project you want in this state.
“If you ask all the nine states in the Niger Delta and say State A, what kind of project do you want NDDC to execute, we are not interested in who will be the contractor. Our interest is that we are synergising with you so that you don’t repeat those things we are doing.”
