President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said there was nothing on ground to justify the huge amount of money the Federal Government had spent on the Niger Delta Development Commission.

Jonathan said he would henceforth take a closer look into the commission’s books since the laxity of any government body would always be attributed to him as the President.

The President spoke at the inauguration of the new NDDC Board, led by Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Addressing members of the board, Jonathan said, “From three per cent to one intervention or the other, if you aggregate the total amount of money the Federal Government has spent on this agency, it is enormous and I don’t believe that we have something on ground to show very clearly.

“People are so inquisitive now, society is becoming more open and of course the freedom of press laws and so on, so everybody will want to know what is happening in the NDDC and it is your responsibility to do things differently.

“The former board, at a time, had to be dissolved because instead of the board to work with the management to make sure that people from the area benefit from the NDDC, they were busy quarrelling over money.

“The money does not belong to the board members or the staff, the money belongs to the people yet they were quarrelling.

“If the money that belongs to the people is being spent the way it should, there will be no reason why people should quarrel. There are guidelines in terms of procurement and managing of funds and if the Managing Director or Executive Director is doing things contrary to expectations, there are lines of reporting, there are lines of authority and I will expect you to follow.

“I don’t expect you to go and start quarrelling. I expect you to be committed, both the board and the management, so as to ensure that the people from the area benefit from the resources.”

Jonathan said he had no choice than to pay more attention to the commission’s activities in order to avoid a situation where he would be wrongly accused of using NDDC fund to run his election campaigns.

“You know everything done by government body, the blame, if wrongly done, is on the head of the President. If you do badly, it is Jonathan that is probably using NDDC funds for election campaigns, that is what people will say. I will really look at your activities clinically, and I will not accept any aberration from the conventional and acceptable way of managing resources of the people,” he said.

Ewa-Henshaw told the President that members of the board were aware of the criticisms of the commission’s performance over the years.

He assured him that the new board would do its best to change the commission’s image in the eyes of Nigerians.

“We will not see it as my father’s thing where you struggle over who should take head or the tail, we are not sharing, we are building, creating, we will engage the youth, the days of new voucher or coupon is over. We will accelerate sustainable development in the region. There will always be business but not business as usual,” he said.

Members of the new board include Dr. Itotenaan Ogiri, (Rivers), Executive Director (Finance and Administration); and Tuoyo Omatsuli (Delta), Executive Director (Projects).

Others are Turofade Oyarede (Bayelsa); Ephraim Etete (Rivers); Etim Inyang Jnr (Akwa Ibom); Adah Andeshi (Cross River); Tom Amioku (Delta); Samuel Okezie Nwogu (Abia); Uchegbu Kyrian (Imo); Maj.-Gen Suleiman Said (Niger, North Central); Alhaji Abdumalik Mahmud (Bauchi, North East).

Those yet to have nominees on the board are Edo, Ondo and North East.

SOURCE...PUNCHNG

Not strange in naija

This man is really wise and takes the wise to identify the wise.

Why am I seeing northerners on that board? And Etete is Bayelsa not rivers

Kudos my President, your sincerity in trying to transform this country will vindicate you a the end.