In spite of the best efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria can no longer breath! The simple reason the region is suffocating is because of the wicked adulteration of the budget for the otherwise laudable projects in the region by the two chambers of the National Assembly. Unknown to several Nigerians, the budget for developmental projects in the Niger Delta is controlled by just three persons: The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Mr. Peter Nwoboshi, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Hon. Olubumi Tunji-Ojo and Hon. Nicholas Mutu who served for 19 years as the Chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and presently serves as the Chairman of the House Committee on Gas Resources.
Owing to the overbearing influences of the aforementioned men on the budgeting system in the National Assembly, of all the legacy projects of President Muhammadu Buhari across the country, it is only the very important East-West road that has not received any form of funding since 2018. By our estimation, just about N100 Billion is required to complete the very strategic East-West Road. However, President Buhari in the 2019 budget allotted N20 Billion to the completion of the road but these “powerful men” in the National Assembly sat on this approval because their pecuniary interests were not accommodated. We are shocked that the leadership of the National Assembly continues to accommodate the atrocious acts of these men against the people of the Niger Delta. It is particularly riling that the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmed Lawan left the very sensitive committee on Niger Delta in the firm grips of a member of the opposition party. Millions of Niger Deltans are poised to support and queue up behind our beloved President Buhari and the APC but are truly frustrated by the antics of the National Assembly leadership against the Niger Delta. Why is the knee of the National Assembly leadership on the neck of the Niger Delta?
The Niger Delta Can Not Breath!
We have found out that the norm since 1999 when democracy returned to Nigeria and when President Olusegun Obasanjo graciously created the NDDC, that the Commission has become the cash cow of the National Assembly, using the committee chairmen of the two chambers of the Assembly. No wonder the the National Assembly is so panicky about the on-going forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari. In fact, in its bid to torpedo the forensic audit, the two chambers of the National Assembly launched a ‘probe’ of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC that has barely been in office for two months. If truly, the National Assembly means well for the great people of the Niger Delta, we challenge both chambers to expand the probe to include the leadership of the NDDC since the inception of the Commission. What the National Assembly is doing is a fathom probe designed to obfuscate the forensic audit of the NDDC authorized by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The authoritarianism of the Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on the Niger Delta is further underscored by their refusal to approve the requisite counterpart funding for an International for Agriculture Development (IFAD) $129 Million loan that was intended to create over 50,000 jobs in the Niger Delta region of the country. Why do they hate the Niger Delta this much?
The Niger Delta Master Plan that was designed by the NDDC to provide discernable and seamless roadmap for the overall development of oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta region of our great country has been totally jettisoned because it does not serve the personal interests of three persons in the National Assembly! Truly, for how long can a people continue to suffer because of the selfish tendencies of a few.
The leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, must now stand firmly with the people of the Niger Delta and the only way they can do this is to rejig the budgeting system for projects in the Niger Delta. A situation where the Chairmen of the two committees in the two chambers of the National Assembly decide what goes to the Niger Delta can no longer be tolerated. Better still, the leadership of the National Assembly must now deliberately remove their knees from the neck of the Niger Delta by recalibrating their respective committees on the Niger Delta or the NDDC. We have completely lost confidence in the current leadership of the committees in the two chambers. Our quest is for the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the Distinguished President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmed Lawan and Honourable Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila to prove to the resilient but long-suffering people of the Niger Delta that they are not part of those with their knees on the neck of the NDDC and indeed the people of the Niger Delta.
•By Progressive Legislators from the Niger Delta
