Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday broke silence over the ongoing unfolding drama over the probe of the budgetary allocations to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Speaking for the first time on the attacks and counter attacks between and around persons, institutions, and the commission, Buhari expressed his strong determination to get to the root of the problem undermining the development of the Niger Delta and its peoples in spite of enormous national resources voted year after year for this singular purpose.
The President directed that there should be better coordination among security and investigating agencies with the National Assembly to ensure that his administration’s effort to bring sanity, transparency and accountability to the management of the large amount of resources dedicated to development of the Niger Delta sub-region is not derailed.
According to him, auditing firms and investigative agencies working in collaboration with National Assembly Committees to resolve the challenges in NDDC must initiate actions in a time-bound manner and duly inform the Presidency of the actions being taken.
The President also directed timely sharing of information and knowledge in a way to speedily assist the administration to diagnose what had gone wrong in the past and what needs to be done to make corrections in order to return NDDC to its original mandate of making life better for people in Niger Delta.
Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the administration wanted to bring about “rapid, even and sustainable development to the region.”
The President gave firm assurance that his administration would put in place a transparent and accountable governance framework, not only in NDDC but in all other institutions of government.
Idowu Sowunmi
