The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, has clarified the status of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), saying the agency will continue to function as an independent structure within the Federal Ministry of Regional Development.
Momoh said that the Federal Executive Council only changed the nomenclature of the erstwhile Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Development to accommodate all newly created Regional Commissions as established by the laws of the National Assembly.
The Minister made this clarification on Wednesday while briefing State House Correspondents on the re-designation of the Ministry by the Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
Momoh also stated that the change of name of the former Ministry of Niger Delta does not reduce the functionality of the federal government to cater for the needs of the people of the region; hence, the status quo remains as regards the operation of all agencies under the former Ministry of Niger Delta.
He explained that the Niger Delta region, being one of the regions under the Federal Ministry of Regional Development, will be supervised along with other recently created regional development commissions by the National Assembly, thereby facilitating better supervision.
“To avoid misconstrued information in the Niger Delta region, first the Ministry has only been changed by nomenclature Niger delta region is just within the 7 Niger Delta States , you are all aware that a number of regional development commissions, like Northwest Development Commission, north east, south east, and some other that are coming up are already in place, and there must be a ministry that will supervise all these agencies, and in order to do that today, president and the FEC decided that all these commissions that have been created and signed by the National Assembly will be brought under the supervision of the erstwhile Ministry of Niger Delta which is now redesignated as the Ministry of Regional Development.
“For our people over there in the Niger Delta region, I would like them to know that that has not removed anything from them.”
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He further made known that the structure of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is in place.
“The NDDC is still very much in place, which is still under the Ministry of Regional Development, and all other such agencies are there just a question of change of nomenclature. That is what has been done. And I wouldn’t want anybody in that region to begin to feel that the Ministry of Niger Delta has been scrapped and is no more in existence. All the structures and everything about the Niger data remains is just a change of nomenclature and, of course, expansion of activities of the ministry,” he said.
Momoh commended the vision of President Tinubu, saying the foresight is commendable.
“So, I think it’s something worth to be commended for the vision and the foresight of Mr. President. So, I think it’s very important we make this known to you.”
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