Some Niger Delta youths coalition have warned the incoming
administration of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) against downgrading
the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to a parastatal under the
Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
Their warning was informed by a
purported plot by the next government to implement the recommendations
of the Steve Oransaye Committee Report on the rationalization and merger
of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, ran by the Federal
Government.
Rising from a meeting yesterday in Warri, Delta State,
the coalition which comprised 26 youth and ex-militant groups under the
aegis South- South Mandate, vowed to resist any move that could
impede the rapid transformation of the region currently being undertaken
by the NNDC.
In a communiqué signed by the Chief Convener, Mr. Victor Akpe, the
youths held that making the NDDC a parastatal under the Ministry of the
Niger Delta Affairs would mean bogging the commission’s projects down
with civil service bureaucracy.
According to them, “Inasmuch as we
grudgingly decided to allow peace to reign after we were dubiously and
maliciously rigged out of the presidency, our reluctant acceptance of
that faulty March 28, 2015 electoral abracadabra over a sitting
President from Niger Delta, a charade never recorded in the history of
electoral contest in Nigeria, should not be misconstrued as
capitulation by the youth of Niger Delta, now galvanized under the
South-south Mandate, SSM,”the youths said.
“While we are still evaluating the import of March 28, 2015
presidential poll robbery through a well-orchestrated regional gang-up,
procedural compromise and massive intimidation of the electorate in some
parts of the country, we shall vehemently resist further humiliation
and annihilation of our people”. The youths noted in the communiqué
which was made available to newsmen in Abuja, that as the closest
government interventionist agency to the poor and neglected people of
the Niger Delta region, they would not tolerate any attempt to further
suffocate the NDDC since it remained the only government agency that has
direct impact on the oil bearing communities.
“Niger Deltans
shall no longer allow their interest to be subjugated and trampled upon
by the Federal Government of Nigeria under whatever guise”, they added.
The Niger Delta youths argued that if part of the reasons for the
planned merger was based on some frivolous complaints of non-performance
against the agency by some disgruntled individuals, the Federal
Government should be held responsible for its refusal to release over
N700 billion statutory funds owed the agency which would have gone a
long way in executing its projects and programmes.
While
emphasizing that the NDDC must be allowed to function independently
under the presidency as presently constituted and be allowed to continue
to draw its funding from the current First-Line charge, they warned
that they neither issue threats without a cause, nor strike without
exhausting all possible channels of consultation and seeking redress. The youths urged the incoming Buhari administration to release the
entire N700 billion being owed it and subsequently ensure prompt release
of its funds, instead of merging the commission with the ministry. The youths urged the incoming Buhari administration to release the
entire N700 billion being owed it and subsequently ensure prompt release
of its funds, instead of merging the commission with the ministry.
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