By CrossRiverWatch Admin
The Chairman of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, SAN has resumed office in Port Harcourt with a promise that things will be done differently by the Management and Board of the Commission.
Egba who spoke at his resumption yesterday said the battered image of the commission as a contract awarding body must be rebranded to achieve maximum impact.
According to Senator Egba, “Let me say it again that things will be done differently. This is because circumstances have changed, it is a new administration. The economy has become more challenging and when the times are challenging, you must be more innovative, and you must cut excesses.
“We must be leaner; our books must be clean, our projects must be audited, our personnel must be audited, our processes must be audited, so that we are clean and efficient. We assure you that in doing this, we must do it together so that we have one challenge. We have one challenge and one challenge alone; to develop the Niger Delta Region, only us can do it.
“As I stepped in this morning and saw the swollen heads of young men and women at the entrance of the gate, I realized that the challenge is even more biting. We must painfully engage those young men and women, we can do that by drawing up policies and programs that teach the people how to fish and not give people fish. The responsibility for doing that rest on us.
The new Board Chairman also assured Nigerians that since their appointment in July, the management team and the board have had series of interactions about the development plan for the region and they will hit the ground running.
“The benefits the MD and the Board have is that our appointment was announced since July and we were inaugurated four months later. So we have spent more time doing conversation about issues in the Niger Delta region. Both management and the Board will be on the same page in the drive to change the song, to change the story, to change the narrative of the NDDC.
“Out there, I must say it very frankly, the image of NDDC is that of a contract awarding silos, a contract awarding factory. I went to see a very senior brother the other day and he referred to me as the Chairman of the other stock exchange and I said to him, which stock exchange Sir? He said people trade in NDDC contracts the same way they trade in shares. I don’t think that was a very edifying remark.
“We must rebrand, we must refocus. The times are different and we must change with time. We must be more innovative, we must be more efficient.” he said.