By Austin Ogwuda
THE Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC held its 13th Extraordinary General Assembly of the Forum of Monarchs in the South-South Region in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria, on Tuesday, with a call on the traditional rulers to take up the responsibility of choosing the exact projects needed in their respective communities.
Addressing the gathering, the Managing Director NDDC, Chief Samuel Ogbuku said that the Commission cannot choose projects for benefiting communities.
The Managing Director made it clear that the Commission has been repositioned to address the ills of the past by building a corporate governance structure and a database to curb challenges of selection.
According to him, “The traditional institution is the best institution to collaborate with when it comes to development. This is because when it comes to governance, the traditional institution is the original foundation of governance.
“For us in NDDC, we believe in such collaborations, if it was not there before, right now, we are trying to implement collaboration for sustainable development.
”We started with our 2024 budget, we thought we had to start with Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) conference which took place in Uyo in 2023.
“Every strata including the traditional rulers were represented to discuss the budget.
We felt that was the right way to go instead of us detecting what to do for the people, the people should rather dictate what we should do for them.
“This forum is a very important to ensure that every public office holder comes here to present his account of stewardship. whatever positions we are holding, we are holding in trust for you”, he added.
Ogbuku pointed out that it is time for all the stakeholders in the region to come together to “weave the basket” of development for the region irrespective of position or party affiliation.
Also speaking, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), Sen. George Akume, represented by Sen. Jack Tilley-Gyado commended the traditional rulers for their revered role in the communities, noting that if given a Constitutional role, the traditional institution would be able to halt the security challenges the country is presently facing.
The SGF urged them to guide against further degradation of the region’s environment due to oil pollution and its attendant consequences while tasking the Lawmakers to ensure the assigning of roles to the traditional rulers in the Constitution.
The event was themed, “Strengthening Stakeholder Collaboration for the Development of the South-South Region: The Role of the Traditional Institution”.