by crossriverwatch admin
Former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) Mr. Ebitimi Alaibe has called on the federal government to increase funding to the intervention agencies and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to enable the region succeed with its developmental plan.
Alaibe who made this call at the stakeholders’ conference and inaugural meeting of the national council on Niger Delta in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said the people of the Niger Delta have suffered development paradox due to inconsistency in planning and inadequate funding for the region.
The former NDDC boss said no matter how excellent the development plan of the region may be, it will amount to nothing without commensurate funding.
He further advocated for funding arrangement and strategies which he said only the federal government can guarantee with institutional frameworks that will translate to real action for the rapid development of the region.
“No action can happen unless we discuss action of funding arrangement and strategies which is critical to the development of the Niger Delta region.” he said.
In her remark, a former Adviser to President Obasanjo on National Assembly Matters, Senator Florence Ita Giwa, reiterated that previous development plans for the region failed as result of inadequate funding and lack of unity amongst the key players in the Niger Delta.
She said real development can only come to the region if all the stakeholders come together with harmonized views on tackling decades of lack of physical infrastructural development facing the region.
Ita-Giwa maintained that implementing the regional action plan is key to several other expectations from the region and reminded the stakeholders of the roles of women in the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta, stressing that women should be carried along in the development plan.
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