DESPITE the Federal Government’s avowed commitment to the development of the Niger Delta region, the federal authority is indebted to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to the tune of about N500 billion, it was learnt yesterday.

The Managing Director of the commission, Mr Chibuzor Ugwoha, made the stunning revelation yesterday, while giving the record of his performance in office in the last one year during a parley with journalists in Lagos.

According to him, the debt forms part of the money needed by the commission to construct the East-West Coastal Road, which formed the plank of the three mega projects announced by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as part of the post-amnesty programme.

Ugwoha said that on completion, the road, taking off from Calabar, in Cross River State, through the oil producing states to Delta State, will open up the Niger Delta region to investment as it would ease the movement of goods and services.

While soliciting assistance for the NDDC on the N1.8 trillion road project, the NDDC boss disclosed that its design has reached 70 per cent completion and added that the road would have the longest bridge on it.

He also listed some of the peculiar challenges being faced by the commission, which he said included the not development-friendly topography of the terrain.

Ugwoha said: “In the Niger Delta region, to embark on any construction, unlike other parts of the country, a contractor, first of all, needs to reclaim land for the sitting of the project.

“The contractor also needs man-made land to settle. He also needs to transport materials (laterite, cement, others) for a long distance. All this makes construction more expensive.

“There is also the challenge posed by the rain. If you want to construct a bridge which requires 12 calender months in the Niger Delta, you will spend about four years because you hardly have three months of dry season.”

All this, according to him, makes people to think that the commission is slow or not doing enough.”

Despite the challenges, Ugwoha, however, said the NDDC under his leadership had, in the past year, transformed the region.

For instance, he disclosed that the commission, towards the end of last year, awarded 45 mega projects worth more than N180 billion spread across the states of the region.

On assumption of office on August 6, 2009, Ugwoha said he discovered the need to create a new Niger Delta region.

This, according to him, required the development of human capital, not just infrastructure.

Though he said the development of infrastructure was necessary, it will be incomplete without the development of the people, expected to bring about the development process.

His words: “Of course, it does not make sense to train a man who has no job at the end of the day.”

He informed that the commission conducted a survey on the need of the people and the areas they were needed.

Said the NDDC boss: “At the end of the survey, it was discovered that welding is an essential profession needed in the oil and gas industry.

“But we discovered that those earning fat salary in that area are foreigners from Asia and other areas.

“We know there were roadside welders but they did not have the skill required in the oil and gas. So, we decided to train some of the youths.”

He disclosed that 25 youths were selected, trained at Effunrun in Delta State and sent to South Africa to further sharpen their skills.

According to him, 24 of them have be internationally certified as welders who can compete with expatriates in welding.

“These 24 welders,” he disclosed, “are among only 38 internationally-certified welders in the country.”

He explained that the plan was for them to train others, starting with 700 youths already selected for the exercise.

“This is because there are over 2,000 vacancies for welders in the industry,” he noted.

In its holistic approach to the development of the Niger Delta region, Ugwoha disclosed that the commission set up a Niger Delta Technical Aid Corps.

The corps, he disclosed, has absorbed 2,000 hitherto unemployed youths, out of about the 57,000 graduates that applied.

These graduates are attached to private business concerns, even as he informed that each of the youths get N30,000 monthly from the commission while their employers pay them N15,000 each.

He said the arrangement was worked out to reduce unemployment and youth restiveness in the region as well as to ameliorate the socio-economic problems of the people.

He noted that the employed graduates could now have purchasing powers and can plan for their lives while the employers would also enjoy the services of qualified workers to grow their businesses.

Ugwoha also disclosed that the commission has commenced the training of about 100 youths in Norway in the oil and gas sector, while a private firm partnering with the commission has promised to train 65 youths in drilling.

He also disclosed that the commission has entered into a partnership with British firms to develop agriculture in the region.

“This is to ensure that the Niger Delta will be known not only for oil and gas, but also self-sufficient in food production,” he said.

The aim, according to him, was for the region to be able to feed the nation.

Speaking of his vision for the agency, Ugwoha spoke of plans to transform the Niger Delta region into an investors’ haven, “where a Lagosian will say at the weekend, I want to eat fresh fish in Port Harcourt.”

Warning that the commission should not be seen as the solution to all the problems of the region, he said the NDDC was doing all within its means to reconnect the people with the economy of the region.





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