Former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, are to lead discussions on the forthcoming 2024 Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit to hold from July 10 to 13 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

The summit which has as its theme as ‘Renewed Hope for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta Region’ will be facilitated by the Niger Delta Development Commission.

Also expected at the summit are governors of the nine states of the region and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.

The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, who disclosed this during a pre-event news briefing in Port Harcourt, said the event would appraise the development challenges facing the region to find solutions to them and also fast-track the transformation of the oil and gas-rich region.

Ogbuku said, “The NDDC is only facilitating stakeholders’ summit in the Niger Delta because one of the key instruments of the Renewed Hope agenda of Mr President is stakeholders’ engagement.

“We (NDDC) should also be seen as the umbrella body of bringing the entire nine states together in engaging our stakeholders. If the Rivers State government wants to do a stakeholders’ summit, it will be limited to the people of Rivers State.

“But it is only NDDC that can bring these states together. So, the NDDC is just the facilitator. As you can see during the stakeholders’ summit, in the main programme, the chairman of the summit will be the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

“The former President is the special guest of honour. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, being the highest political office holder in the region, will be the chief host. Then, you have the minister of the Niger Delta as co-host and governors of the Niger Delta.”

He added, “For us, we can as well decide to say we want to start working towards the process of amending the NDDC Act because it does not serve the purpose. Maybe there are some challenges we are facing.

“But we thought, rather than working alone, let it be that the people come together if they think it is necessary, as issues have been discussed in the technical session. Let it be that it’s the people of the Niger Delta that have come together to agree.”