NDDC calls for cooperation among stakeholders

                                     
 Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission( NDDC) Bassey Dan-Abia, has appealed for more cooperation among stakeholders in the Niger Delta to quicken the pace of development in the region.

The NDDC Chief Executive Officer made the appeal  while inspecting the 8.4-kilometre Etebi-Oruko Road in Esit Eket Local government Area of Akwa-Ibom State.

He said that the stakeholders would meet in the next few weeks on the platform of the Partners for Sustainable Development (PSD) Forum to address issues that would facilitate a more robust drive for the development of Nigeria’s oil-rich region.
According to him, the PSD Forum remained a platform for collaboration amongst the development stakeholders in the region.

Sir Dan-Abia said that the NDDC needed the support and partnership of other development agencies to realize its mandate of fast-tracking the development of the Niger Delta.
 He elaborated: “We need resources to develop the region and the NDDC cannot carry the burden alone. Our stakeholders know that our biggest challenge is funding and they also know that we don’t politicize development.”

The NDDC boss said that the commission would not relent on its resolve to continually supervise and inspect on-going projects to facilitate their speedy completion as well as ensure that quality was not compromised. He said that the Etebi-Oruko Road would link two local government areas and open up a lot of communities hitherto cut off from economic opportunities.

An Assistant Director in NDDC’s directorate of Project monitoring and Supervision, Engr. Etim Eyoette, said that the road was basically a footpath when the contractor mobilized to the site last year.
 In his assessment, the communities which were largely inaccessible before now would begin to enjoy the benefits of the road by April next year, when the contractor was expected to have handed over the completed project. He gave assurances that the contractor would be given all the necessary support to deliver the project on schedule.

Some leaders of the benefiting communities were at the project site to receive the NDDC Chief Executive Officer and his team. They took turns to commend the commission for bringing development to their communities.


According to Chief Okon Asuquo, the village head of Oruko, the federal Government had visited them through the NDDC in a way they never imagined was possible. “I did not know that I will see a good road like this in my village in my lifetime,” he said.

Another elder from Oruko, Chief John Akaiso, said that God had used the current management of the NDDC to bring succor to the rural communities on the path of the road. He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for retaining the current management of the NDDC, in spite of rumours and misinformation by detractors.