FG Sacks NDDC Board

This Day

14 September 2011

FG Sacks NDDC Board

The Federal Government has announced the dissolution of the management board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In a statement issued in Abuja Tuesday, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, explained that the dissolution of the board was in line with the report submitted by the Presidential Committee set up to look into the problems of the NDDC.

Anyim noted that President Goodluck Jonathan had approved the dissolution after due consideration of the report, adding that the dissolution was with effect from September 13.

According to him: “Following the conclusion of the assignment of the Presidential committee to look into the problems facing the Niger Delta Development Commission and the subsequent submission of the report, President Goodluck Jonathan, after due consideration of the report has approved the dissolution of the board of NDDC with effect from September 13, 2011.”

He said a new board would be reconstituted and announced soon by the government, while the managing director and other executive members of the former board had been directed to hand over all property of the commission in their custody to the Director of Administration and Human Resources, Mrs. Osato Areyenka.

It would be recalled that President Jonathan on July 27, 2011 approved the appointment of a Presidential Committee, headed by former Head of Service, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, to look into the problems that had hindered the operations of the NDDC.

President Goodluck Jonathan had Tuesday vowed to do all within his power to sanitise and reverse he decay that had attended the Niger Delta Development Commission which the Orasanye Committee had described as “Acutely crisis-ridden.”

Jonathan said while receiving the report that he was committed to ensuring that the commission transformed into a responsive and effective organisation that would play the role of development for which it was set up.

He pledged to apply remedial measures first to arrest the rot and see to it that the role for which the commission was established was dutifully carried out to justify the huge resources annually approved for it, adding, “We will do whatever it takes to sanitise the NDDC”.

He had also while receiving another report on projects implementation  from Presidential Monitoring Committee, headed by Chief Isaac Jemide, assured the nation  that the era of contractors collecting money without executing jobs was over and that there would be a clinical review of such projects with a view to sending law enforcement agents after such contractors.

“Project abandonment is totally unacceptable to us. The era of contractors taking money and not doing their work is over. If the NDDC is to act as a catalyst for development in the Niger Delta, then we must act to redeem the situation,” he said.