From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has appealed for calm over the threat by Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) to protest the delay in the commission’s substantive board inauguration.
The IYC had, recently at a stakeholders’ meeting presided over by its National President, Timothy Igbifa, issued a 30-day ultimatum to the Presidency to inaugurate a substantive board for the NDDC or face protest by its members.
However, speaking at the weekend as part of activities in his familiarisation and sensitisation tour of youths in the region, NDDC sole administrator Special Assistant on Youth Matters, Orusakwe Aseimiegha, called for peaceful resolution that will usher in the needed development.
Aseimiegha, while defending the decision of the ongoing forensic audit, lamented the commission has no proper records of projects awarded over the years.
According to him, the forensics audit was to examine and find answers, as well as creating a framework for reversing the failures recorded in the past.
“While the commission may have recorded marginal success in both human and physical developments, perversion of political interference, systemic distortions, uncoordinated project implementation, institutional constrains, lack of focus, high overhead costs, absence of consensus building and endemic corruption among others had significantly constricted the capacity of the commission to deliver on its core mandate.
“There arose the need to correct the anomalies through comprehensive overall and re-engineering of the entire process. This led to the commencement of the forensic audit exercise to audit the account, the finances and projects of the commission.”