The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has re-stated its resolve to always intervene in the critical sectors of health and education in line with its mandate for the development of the Niger Delta region.
The Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, stated this during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Calabar, Cross River State, led by Joseph Okegbe, the Medical Director.
Ndoma-Egba underlined the importance of health and education in the affairs of any nation, assuring that the NDDC would step up its contributions in those areas. “Fortunately for us, health is part of the core mandate of the NDDC,” he said.
The NDDC Chairman said that he was familiar with the challenges facing the neuropsychiatric hospital and promised that the Commission would assist as much as possible in addressing them.
He said: “Time has come for us to do more in the health sector. We must do more in health and education. We cannot do that without providing basic infrastructure in these areas.
“The main resource of any nation is human beings and for the human beings to be a resource not a curse, they must be healthy, educated and motivated. Indeed, the real resource of any nation is the education of its young people. If you want to invest in a nation, education of the youths is the best option.”
The Medical Director, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital,Joseph Okegbe, acknowledged the fact that NDDC was an intervention agency and therefore, could not solve all the problems in the health sector. He said, however, that the hospital was urgently in need of assistance in the area of power supply, internal roads and accommodation.
Okegbe stated that “the neuropsychiatric hospital is a specialist hospital dedicated to the provision of healthcare in the area of neuropsychiatry. He emphasized that “it is the only hospital providing specialized service of this nature to the whole of Cross River State, Akwa Ibom State, Rivers State, Ebonyi State and even beyond.”
He listed the core services provided by the institution, which included routine and specialized treatment of neuropsychiatric cases, research in neuropsychiatry, residency training of medical doctors, and training of psychiatric nurses, among others.
The Medical Director lamented that the hospital had no alternative means of power supply, noting that routine services were usually interrupted and the entire hospital thrown into darkness whenever public power supply failed.
He also appealed to the NDDC to help the hospital to complete its perimeter fence and construct the internal road network in its permanent site.
We Encourage Militancy of Development, Says NDDC Chairman
Ndoma-Egba has also stressed the importance of engagements and partnerships in the development of the Niger Delta region.
Ndoma-Egba stated this when a delegation from the Itsekiri Nation paid him a courtesy visit at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
The Chairman commended the representatives of the Warri monarch for the mature approach they took in the issues concerning the Warri Kingdom. He said: “You seek development. We desire development. We will continue to partner with people who seek development and approach their issues in a peaceful way. We want to encourage a new kind of militancy. Militancy for dialogue, militancy for development and militancy for progress.
“This is the kind of militancy we want to see in the region, a militancy of engagement and partnership. We don’t want a militancy of fighting.”
Ndoma-Egba said that a comprehensive development of the Niger Delta region would not be achieved without a sustainable master plan, stating that the NDDC was committed to going back to the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan.
The Chairman said: “We have to agree on whether to terminate the existing Master Plan, update it or upgrade it. But a Master Plan is needed so that our annual budgets will be annual incremental steps towards achieving the vision of the plan.”
He declared that NDDC had set up a board committee to complement the secretariat of the Partners for Sustainable Development, PSD Forum that would start work on the Master Plan.
Ndoma-Egba said that NDDC was now appropriating more money for existing projects, noting that in the 2017 budget, the Commission was allocating 70 per cent for on-going projects and only 30 per cent for new ones.
He assured the Itsekiri people that the Omadino-Okerenghigho-Escravos Road was a key project for the NDDC and that it was already collaborating with the Delta State Government to execute the project.
Earlier in his address, the leader of the Itsekiri delegation, Chief Kofi Kartey, appealed to the NDDC to expedite action on the construction of Omadino-Okerenghigho-Escravos Road; the Ogheye-Koko Escravos Road; the Ugborodo Shore Protection Warri South West LGA, among others.
He said: “We of the Itsekiri Ethnic Nation of Nigeria, constitute a significant minority whose homeland is endowed with abundant Natural Resources, including Oil, Gas, Marine and Solid minerals that contribute a significant percentage of revenue of the federation. We make bold to say that the Itsekiri Nation is not below the second position among oil and gas bearing ethnic nations within the Nigerian-nation state.”
Chief Kartey, who is also the Executive Secretary of Olu-in-Council, prayed that the present NDDC board would make a difference in the lives of the people, through speedy execution and completion of its projects.
He declared: “We have huge confidence on this board and the management of NDDC, to bring back Warri Kingdom into true reckoning and into its proper status as a frontline producer of oil and gas in Nigeria.”
Chief Kartey urged the NDDC to consider some projects that may not have been captured under the master plan, but which were very dear to the Itsekiri people. He said that the projects included the Trans Warri-Ode Itsekiri; and the proposed Warri University.