From John Silas
The Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has set his sight on the year 2025 fiscal year, stating some major goals which he hoped the interventionist agency would achieve across the nine Niger Delta States.
Reviewing the NDDC’s performance during the preceding year 2024, Ogbuku, highlighted the plans and expectations of the Commission for 2025, assuring that the targets of sustainablle development of the region in line with the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, was on course towards full realization.
Ogbuku, who spoke during an interactive session with newsmen at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, vowed that the Commission would fast-track all the development projects scattered across the Niger Delta communities.
“The President has high expectations of us and we shall not disappoint him and the people of the Niger Delta region.”
“Mr. President frowns at the level of underdevelopment of the Niger Delta. He wants to make a difference for the people to see what he has achieved. He has made a commitment to us by ensuring that we have funds with which to operate. This challenge will spur us to do more for the people,” Ogbuku stressed.
He, therefore, expressed optimism that 2025 would be a prosperous year for the people of the Niger Delta region.
“I say with confidence and conviction that 2025 will be a year of prosperity, especially in project delivery,” he assured.
The NDDC Boss listed some intervention areas in the new year as follows:
“We will complete the Kaa Ataba bridge in Rivers State in 2025. We have engaged the contractor, who assured us the project will be completed in seven months. It is one of the projects we listed under the NLNG partnership. Once that project is completed, the people of the region will have more reason to attest that NDDC is working.
“We are also looking at revitalising the Okirika-Borikiri Bridge and other legacy projects we earmarked to be executed within the 2024 budget cycle.”
He added that “in 2025, the Commission would prioritise capital projects and place less emphasis on recurrent expenditures.
“The NDDC Board and Management are dedicated to investing more of our funds in capital projects. Even at the management level, I have told our management team that from 2025, we will reduce our recurrent expenditures and invest more in capital projects. Every directorate should be mindful of what they bring forward for recurrent spending.
“Let us begin to see projects being delivered. People do not want to know how much you have spent on medical support and other intangible projects that also impact society. Often, people judge organisations by physical projects on the ground. We want to emphasize physical projects.
“We will start commissioning projects in February while intensifying work on ongoing projects. Apart from completing significant projects, we will start new ones. We want to embark on many new projects. We want to build projects that will touch lives in our communities.
“It is not only mega projects that we should be building. We want to execute projects that will directly impact communities because that is what elicits testimonies from our people on the performance of NDDC. We want to implement projects that affect communities directly. In 2025, most of these communities will feel our presence.
“As we build the highways and other major projects, we will come down to do those things that will be felt in the rural communities, like giving the communities potable water to prevent waterborne diseases such as cholera.”
Ogbuku maintained that the development policy of the NDDC would be all-encompassing to ensure that people in the rural areas feel the presence of the Commission.
He said: “We will improve our stakeholder management, engagement and communication. We want to see how we can reach out to those complaining that they write to us and we don’t respond. We will empower our Community and Rural Development Directorate to reach out to communities and respond promptly to their demands.”
“In 2025, the NDDC website will be very active. Communicating better with people and having a feedback mechanism. We will have the I-reporter on the website to give us real-time feedback.
“In 2025, you will all see a new NDDC. If NDDC is good in 2024, in 2025, we will be better to serve the people of the Niger Delta.”
