Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa has praised President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment Prof. Nelson Brambaifa as Acting Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Governor Dickson A statement by Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson, Bayelsa Information and Orientation Commissioner, said on Tuesday that the appointment of Brambaifa was in line with the principle of rotating positions among Niger Delta states.

 

NDDC was established in 2000 with the mission of facilitating the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful.

The Special Assistant to President on Media Mr Femi Adeshina on Friday announced the appointment of the managing director of NDDC alongside other members of the board of the commission. The governor urged the new NDDC managing director to use his new position to advance the course of development in the state. He also urged him to partner with the state government to deliver critical road infrastructure that would position the state for more development.

The NDDC was created largely as a response to the demands of the population of the Niger Delta, a populous area inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups. During the 1990s these ethnic groups, most notably the Ijaw and the Ogoni established organisations to confront the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies such as Shell. The minorities of the Niger Delta have continued to agitate and articulate demands for greater autonomy and control of the area’s petroleum resources.They justify their grievances by reference to the extensive environmental degradation and pollution from oil activities that have occurred in the region since the late 1950s. However, the minority communities of oil producing areas have received little or no currency from the oil industry and environmental remediation measures are limited and negligible. The region is highly underdeveloped and is poor even by Nigeria’s standards for quality of life.

The Special Assistant to President on Media Mr Femi Adeshina on Friday announced the appointment of the managing director of NDDC alongside other members of the board of the commission. The governor urged the new NDDC managing director to use his new position to advance the course of development in the state. He also urged him to partner with the state government to deliver critical road infrastructure that would position the state for more development. NDDC: Bayelsa group salutes Buhari over Brambaifa Dickson advised Brambaifa to avoid politics and be focused on implementing projects that would impact positively on the Niger Delta people.“He should not behave like some persons in the past who used their privileged positions at the federal level to short-change the state,” he said. He said that Bayelsa had suffered severe underdevelopment as a result of the attitude of some of its leaders who played politics with golden opportunities. Dickson assured the new NDDC helmsman of his administration’s support toward achieving the mandate of the commission. “We are watching, we want to see how the new MD will navigate the ship of the commission away from the murky waters of politics,” he said.

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