IT was in the news that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, recently presented a N1.91 trillion 2024 budget to the Senate Committee on NDDC. The draft budget emphasized priorities such as security, job creation, youth and women empowerment, social welfare, education and infrastructure, among others.
And if this policy framework is achieved as envisaged, it is abundantly clear that future historians and, of course, development professionals shall definitely refer to the present board and management as a bunch that restored new order in the region and hope to the people.
Indeed, what the above information tells us is that both project abandonment and public asset neglect in the country are two striking human tragedies, and that the pain they inflict on the nation are deepened by the fact that they were avoidable. There are books to teach how to build a house, how to repair an engine and how to write a book, but there are no codified books on how to build a region, society or nation.
It also stands as a testament of promise fulfilled on the part of the entire governing board and management of NDDC. Recall that Mr. Chiedu Ebie, Chairman, Governing board of NDDC, in his opening remarks at the agency’s 2024 retreat held in February, at Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, told the gathering that the NDDC board and management under his leadership will look back, so as to productively look forward in its resolve to provide coordinated development to the people of Niger Delta region.