Chairman of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has decried the level of unemployment in the Niger Delta region, saying the armies of jobless youths found in the region is a time-bomb.
This is as the NDDC has declared that it has contingent liability of N1.3 Trillion resulting from the number of projects the commission committed itself into without recourse to its funding.
Ndoma-Egba spoke yesterday when a delegation from the United Nations, led by its resident/humanitarian coordinator, Ambassador Edward Kallon, visited the board and management of the commission in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
He stated that the current board and management of the NDDC is ensuring transparency in all its dealings in order to win the confidence of its development partners, which will eventually lead to peace and development of the Niger Delta region.
Ndoma-Egba said, “We need peace in the region, but importantly, we need urgent development of the region in order to sustain the desired peace in the region. We owe our youths a responsibility of ensuring they remain resourceful and not a curse, like the oil.”
Also speaking, the managing directorof the NDDC, Nsima Ekere, stated that the major problem with the commission is the continued political interference in the running of its affairs by political leaders.
Ekere said, “The major point of all the issues wrong with the NDDC is the continued political interference in the running of the affairs of the NDDC. Going through financial issues, we discovered that there is a lot of mobilization; the commission committed itself to projects that were above its funding.
Source: leadership.ng
