The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has lauded President Bola Tinubu for appointing a minister of Niger Delta Development and reconstituting the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Recall that on August 25, Tinubu appointed board members and a management team for the NDDC.
The new chairman of the commission is Mr Chiedu Ebie from Delta state while the managing director and chief executive officer is Mr Samuel Ogbuku from Bayelsa State.
PANDEF said in a statement by its spokesman, Dr Ken Robinson noted that the president’s swift response to its protest “is a departure from the reckless past.”
Robinson stated that the new nominations largely satisfied its expectations and that of a vast majority of the people of the Niger Delta region.
Besides, he said the president’s action complied with the law and fundamental principles behind the establishment of the commission.
The statement reads in part: “PANDEF recalls an interactive visit by presidents of ethnic nationalities, key critical stakeholders, and leaders of professional bodies of the Niger Delta region, to the managing director of the NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, on July 5, this year.
“The delegation was led by the PANDEF national chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien. It expressed its pleasure with, and thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for retaining the managing director and the executive directors of the commission, after the dissolution of the boards of agencies and parastatals of the federal government.
“The delegation, at that time, called on President Bola Tinubu to speedily reconstitute and inaugurate the full Board of the NDDC for the proper functioning of the commission.
“It is, therefore, for the Forum, quite gratifying that Mr. President has, within his first one hundred days in office, reconstituted the Board and Management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
“PANDEF notes that this singular action of the President provides a glimmer of hope that, perhaps, President Bola Tinubu’s administration would depart from the gross nonchalance of the immediate past administration, and devote the much-needed attention and seriousness to issues of the Niger Delta Region.
“PANDEF further notes that the President also acted promptly, in a similar manner, by assigning a minister to the ministry of Niger Delta, after the denunciations, from the region, which greeted the initial non-assignment of a minister to the all-important cabinet.”
