“Technocrats not politicians” should manage NDDC ~Wike

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, says technocrats, and not politicians should be placed in charge of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to enable it function effectively to change the narrative of what is playing out at the moment. Wike stated this while explaining the role of governors in the South-South.

He said, “Under the NDDC Act, there should be a governing board made up of the governors. Since 2015 we have been asking for that board, but it was only last year that the President was able to constitute a governing board. But that is just theory.” He also alleged that NDDC, spent N10 billion to fight against him during the last elections. Noting that recent revelations of corruption from the Commission were not unexpected.

Wike, made the allegations on Tuesday in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital. He added that the NDDC has lost focus from the initial mission for which it was established for, and has become a money making machine for some corrupt politicians.

“I have said before and it is very clear, my concern is everybody knows that NDDC was set up for the development of the region,” he said. His comments followed the ongoing probe by the National Assembly into the fraud running into billions of naira said to have been perpetrated by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC between February and May 2020. He also accused the Commission of embarking on projects in Rivers without the consent of the state government. “You cannot go to a state and begin to carry out projects without the permission of the state government, you don’t know what their plans are. You can’t come into my state to disturb my development plan, you must let me know,” he said.

Recall that between February and May, investigations were launched by lawmakers to probe the alleged fraud in the NDDC while President Muhammadu Buhari also ordered that a forensic audit should be carried out on the Commission.