By Our Correspondent
A Scion of Nigeria First Finance Minister has stated that the call by former Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately constitute the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is laced with political consideration in view of the coming 2023 general elections.
Prince Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh, the immediate past Regent of Warri Kingdom made this disclosure in Warri in an interview with newsmen yesterday saying that the timing is wrong as it would further afford politicians ample opportunity to loot the interventionist Commission’s fund for their selfish gain to the detriment of the Niger Delta region.
Prince Okotie-Eboh who expressed surprise at the call by Dr. Uduaghan yesterday wondered where the former governor have been all this while when the heat of the call for the constitution of the board was trending, noting that for now the NDDC should be managed as it is till after the elections of 2023 as this appeal by Dr. Uduaghan and some selfish politicians is pregnant with unfathomable implications for the region’s good.
He admonished President Buhari to focus more on delivering a free, credible and acceptable 2023 elections to put the nation on the path of growth to lift Nigeria from the current socio-political and economic quagmire and refused to be dragged into unnecessary issues capable of setting the region on fire.
He however, reinforced his belief that in setting up the NDDC board, government must remember that, in line with the Act establishing the Commission, its the turn of the Itsekiri nation to produce the Managing Director as of right as the highest oil and gas producing ethnic nationaly in Delta State now that it has rotated back Constitutionally.
He further expressed dismay that Governor Uduaghan’s renewed entrance into the political scene recently by supporting the PDP again shows that he might not be wishing the state well because under PDP’s watch after Governor James Ibori, this oil -rich State has become a laughing stock in the comity of state economics as we have become the second highest debtor state in Nigeria, adding that Deltans needs to change the narrative come 2023.
