ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has tasked the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission to review the strategies being adopted for allocation of development projects to communities and states in the region.
Diri, who spoke through his Technical Adviser on NDDC, Mr Kuro Matthias Nyenye, declared that the era of siting projects without duly consulting with the relevant states and communities should be discontinued.
He urged the commission’s management to start consulting key stakeholders, particularly the state governments, during policy formulation with regard to development projects in order to avoid duplication, waste, abandonment, wasteful allocation of resources and reduce tension among indigenes of the region.
Diri made this known at a town hall meeting between the Senior Special Assistant to the Interim Administrator of the NDDC on Youth Matters, Orusakwe Aseimiegha, and youth organisations in the state.
He said though the idea of keeping an interim administration in the place of a substantive board is unacceptable, his administration had commenced the creation of database to ascertain the number of projects awarded to Bayelsa from inception till date.
He said through the database, the state would know the number of projects completed, abandoned, ongoing, stalled or failed by the NDDC.
The governor said: “The Bayelsa State Government is willing and ready to collaborate with the commission for rapid development of the state. Therefore, it is the position of the commission to liaise with the state government on policy formulation and implementation.
“The state as a major stakeholder must be involved in the formulation of policy with regard to the development of Bayelsa State. By so doing, it will ensure the efficient management of scarce resources, reduce tension among our citizens and also avoid the duplication of projects in the state in line with the developmental agenda and programmes of the prosperity government.
“Furthermore, before the commencement of any subsequent project, the office of the Technical Adviser to the Governor on NDDC should be informed for proper documentation and follow-up. In line with the mandate of the commission and the vision and development objectives of the prosperity government. The office of the Technical Adviser to the Governor has developed this strategy as an advisory tool that will enhance, complement and promote the sustainable development of the state through the intervention and collaboration with the NDDC.”
He also assured the NDDC management of the support from the various communities as the profiling and needs assessment exercise was on because it is a proactive step to involve the communities in government policy formulation and implementation.
Diri added: “The era of sitting at the comfort of their offices to prepare budget without involving the communities is no longer acceptable. NDDC as an intervention agency doesn’t make them to prepare a budget on assumption.
“Bayelsa is a state that has laws that govern its programmes and activities thus the commission’s developmental agenda must be in tandem with the laws of the state in order to avoid distortion of the plans by the government.”