NDDC is a shame of our nation – Onochie
CHAIRMAN of Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, has described the commission as a shame of a nation the new board would turn around.
Onochie, leading the board Thursday to take over the commission’s management at the headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, said there is little or nothing to show for NDDC in the region since inception 23 years ago.
She said, “This (NDDC) is an organization commissioned specifically for the people of Niger Delta. It is an interventionist agency that is supposed to bring about prosperity; it is supposed to bring development in our region.
“This organization was set up year 2000. If you go round the Niger Delta till date, there is little or nothing to show for it. NDDC has been a shame of the Niger Delta and a shame of our nation.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been determined to turn things around. He never does things in his own interest. Everything he does, he does in the interest of Nigerians. And this board you see here represents that interest.
“We are here to reposition NDDC, to serve people of the Niger Delta and by extension people of Nigeria. We are here to do things differently. We have come with ideas and I believe each and everyone of you sitting down here has great and beautiful ideas.
“If you have been lost in the system of doing things in the way it used to be done, please just throw it away. We have new ideas and we welcomed the same new ideas from you.”
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Ogbuku, told the staff, “Be rest assured that, based on your competence, you are going to be working with this administration.
“We are definitely not going to look at mediocrity. Everything has be based on your competence. If you show ingenuity, you have a chance to work with us.
“Out there, everybody believes that NDDC has failed. So, you are stigmatized to the part of the failure. I am saying what people out there are saying. It may not be fact, it could just be an assumption. But, the staff work here seems to have some level of stigmatization.
“I don’t blame you; may be, you have not been given the enabling environment. I believe all of here are well experienced, well trained to give the people of Niger Delta the best.”
(Vanguard)
