The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has launched a campaign to bring back fleeing investors and to convince divesting international oil companies (IOCs) to stay back onshore.
Peace building is said to be the major plank of the project to woo back investors.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the Commission,, at a world press conference in Port Harcourt to unveil the upcoming Stakeholders Forum which kickstarts on July 10, 2024.
The CEO said the summit will solve many problems in the Niger Delta, and they want the people to discuss these problems including peacebuilding, development strategies, and whether there is need to amend the NDDC Act that set up the Commission.
Ogbuku said the Niger Delta is a peaceful region right now.
“In fact, it is the most peaceful region at the moment. We thus appeal to investors to return and the IOCs to change their divestment plans and come back to boost the economy of the region,” he said.
To reduce restiveness, he said the Commission has a job creation and employment strategy, saying, every youth is being captured on a database that would help the Commission to plan and know the areas of competence and needs. He said the era of awarding jobs to relations and circle of friends is over, and that the database would decide who gets what.
The other prong, he mentioned, is through entrepreneurship, saying the Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce is to support the drive in the economy of the region. The Chamber with the Bank of Industry (BoI) is said to be working as partners on this. Transparency, he insisted, is key in this.
After the summit, Ogbuku stated, the Commission would kickstart with skill acquisition and empowerment through the ICT scheme on July 15, 2024. He said youths have been asked to register in this scheme.
Flanked by Ifedayo Abegunde (the executive director, corporate services, and Victor Antai (executive director, projects), the CEO applauded the media for adequately projecting the restoration drive at the Commission at the moment. He said this has proved that the media truly is the voice of the people.
“There is therefore the need to properly inform the media for proper information out there.” Explaining the need for the Stakeholders Forum, Bayelsa-born Ogbuku said stakeholder-engagement approach is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s agenda. “The essence is people of the region understand the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ and how it will it will serve the people
“The NDDC leadership has been doing engagements all this while. It began with the youth, the women, and then ethnic groups. The last group we intend to meet with are the governors of the nine states. We hope this pulls through.”
He said the full engagement is now coming after all the others have been met in sections, the aim, according to him, being to build consensus in the region.
According to the MD, technical session would be held on Wednesday July 10, 2024, the first day of the summit. “It would look at key issues from the scholarly works of experts and look at challenges and their mitigations. A communique would emanate from this exercise. When a people meet and decide the way forward, it is easy to manage them.”
He said it is about leading the region to make input in the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’. “We will use the conference to also unveil our achievements including important bridges, roads, power projects, light up the Niger Delta programme, medical outreach, etc.
“We will show that the Commission has moved from transaction to transformation,” he said.
He harped on the 2024 budget, saying it is a budget of Renewed Hope which seeks to revive abandoned projects.
“The president gave us a mandate to complete abandoned projects in two years. We are thus waiting for the budget to swing into action. That is why we are grateful to the National Assembly for accelerating the budget passage,” he said.