A former Commissioner for Information in Rivers state, Dr. Austin Tam-George on Monday said he is hopeful that the new board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) will fulfill the original for which the Commission was created, that is the development of the Niger Delta region.
President Bola Tinubu last week announced an experienced technocrat, Chiedu Ebie as the Chairman of the NDDC board.
Speaking on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ , Tam-George bemoaned developments in the NDDC under the eight years of former president, Muhammadu Buhari where people with no technical expertise are put in charge of the board.He said “I think the structure of accountability in this country are simply weak. That’s just the fact. Concerning the NDDC collaborating with states, there is really nothing wrong with that”.
“As you probably know, the NDDC itself has been over-politicised to the point where you would have expected those who have technical competence to set the developmental agenda for the region and drive the process because it is an intervention agency”.
“But what we have seen especially in the past eight years has been a situation where people are randomly selected and put on the board. Also, those who are appointed tend to be of different political tendencies to the governors who administer the state”.
“My hope frankly is that this is going to change in this new administration. A board has just been set up. There should be no difficulty if development is the single agenda of these agencies and the state government. There should be no difficulty at all in these parties collaborating to drive development to the door of the people”.
 will fulfill the original for which the Commission was created, that is the development of the Niger Delta region.){kind=link}