President Bola Tinubu has been urged by Chief Edwin Clark, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), to seek for the modification of the 2000 Act creating the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
He claimed that doing so would exempt the non-Niger Delta oil producing states of Abia, Imo, and Ondo from the NDDC’s nine member states.
Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom are the nine states.
The decision was taken by the senior state official on Tuesday in Abuja.
In the first instance, Clark claimed, the three states’ inclusion in the panel was a political outlier.
““The three states should be excluded from the act, if NDDC is to succeed,” he stated.
“The six original Niger Delta Coastal States should continue to make up NDDC. All other oil-producing nations ought to connect with Nigeria and the oil companies.
“This is especially true now that oil has been discovered in other parts of Nigeria, such as Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kogi, and Lagos States, all of which already produce 0.9% of the country’s oil.
They are therefore unable to be a part of NDDC.
The nine states’ responsibilities and who should serve as the Executive Management were laid out in the NDDC Establishment Act of 2000, which was signed by the then-Senate President Chuba Okadigbo.
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Remembering that Ondo, Imo, and Abia were included was a political aberration.
“For NDDC to succeed, I must insist that Non-Niger Delta Oil Producing States be removed from NDDC.
“The NDDC’s success is Nigeria’s prosperity.
Imo, Abia, and Ondo were brought into NDDC for a reason. Geographically speaking, they are not coastal states or the Niger Delta. A political aberration occurred.
“The Federal Government should put plans in place to accommodate them as it is in NDCC same principle to be used not to disorganize the NDDC we want to succeed,” said the federal government.
He compared the NDDC to a liability corporation with main and minority owners, just like a liability firm.
“It is irrational, improper, and chaotic when a minority stakeholder in a limited liability company wants to be the managing director of the company.That is the fundamental justification for my refusal.
“A minority stakeholder of even 5% cannot serve as the limited liability company’s chairman or managing director.
“Having the managing director of the NDDC come from a state that only generates 1.02 percent will be unfair and inequitable.
“I am aware that, in the current situation of Nigeria, the inclination will be to promote their own minority oil producing state to grow their area at the expense of the majority of oil producing states, who incidentally produce over 90% of the oil.
Therefore, it is irrational, inflammatory, and self-serving for Imo, which produces only 1.02 percent of all oil, to call for the resignation of the NDDC Board’s Chief Executives, who have been confirmed by the Senate.(NAN)
