“This is a Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit and not just an NDDC Summit. The NDDC as an interventionist agency, we thought to intervene in the gap of bringing our people together to discuss the challenges we are facing and the prospects ahead of us, hence the theme of the summit “Renewed Hope For Sustainable Development in the Niger Delta.
As the mantra for this present administration of the nation is “Renewed Hope”, we thought it is also ideal for us as Niger Delta people to key in. And one of the cardinal pillars of this administration is stakeholders engagement and that is why we the NDDC has provided the platform to bring the entire Niger Delta people together to discuss the issues of the Niger Delta, educate the people of Niger Delta on the programs and visions of this administration. This an opportunity for us to see people ventilate and articulate their opinions, so that at the end of that, we will come up with a communique that will be the opinion and the stand of the people of the Niger Delta and that is the essence of this Summit.
This Summit is to aggregate and evaluate how far we have gone as Niger Delta people, to see if we have made progress or not. But I believe that from the standpoint of where we started from arms agitation to this point, we’ve moved from been on the street carrying arms to intellectual agitation and what we are doing here today forms part of the intellectual agitation.
We will focus on completing Capital Projects, only projects that add value to the Niger Delta Region will be approved. Our commitment is to working together towards transforming the region, in accordance with the 8 point presidential priorities, and the demands of the NDDC Act of 2000.
We have no intention of clashing with or competing against State Governors in the Region. Instead, we aim to collaborate as Development partners to facilitate the rapid progress of the Niger Delta region.”
MD/CEO NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, speaking at the Niger Delta Stakeholders Pre-Summit Technical Session.
