The Chairman of the
Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, 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.
Tags
Business