Atiku Abubakar has described the Niger Delta
as a huge blemish on the collective conscience of the Nigerian nation.
According to the PDP presidential front runner “the area has accounted for over 85% of
Nigeria's annual revenues for the past 50 years, but still battles stark
under-development and continues to lag behind in almost every key area of
development.
Expanding on the scale of the problem, the former Vice
President said “the
establishment of the Niger Delta Ministry and Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) as well as the Amnesty program have done very little to reverse this
spate of under-development. Instead, these organizations have been plagued by
allegations of excessive bureaucracies, corruption and misappropriation of
funds with little or no development reaching the local communities.
All these, he says, must stop because as “President,
I promise to undertake the following urgent measures: Continuous Development
Agenda through a genuine implementation of the Niger-Delta Master Plan, push Social
Awareness Programmes by creating a high level advocacy and awareness drive to
launch the promotion of rule of law and access to justice in the region, pursue
a Reform Agenda which will include relocating the Niger Delta Ministry from
Abuja to the region to bring it closer to the stakeholders and beneficiaries of
the initiatives then overhauling and possibly merging the Niger-Delta
Ministry & NDDC to remove overlaps, making them more functional and
efficient for service delivery.