The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has completed an ultra-modern office complex in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, soon after moving into its permanent headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The feat now receives acclaim from individuals and groups, saying it is worthy to mark 25 years of the Commission with such a world-class facility.
One of the groups that to react to the feat is a political pressure group in the Niger Delta region, the Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA), which commended the management of the NDDC under Bayelsa-born CEO, Samuel Ogbuku.
In the statement signed by Alozie Chucks, the Director, Research & Evaluation, the NDRA said the complex in Yenagoa represents a rewriting of the narrative of poor work space and substandard work environment that they said had be-devilled the Commission’s Bayelsa State office since its inception in 2000.
“We recall the difficult work environment that staff posted from the headquarters of the Commission to Bayelsa, had to grapple with as this counteracted productivity and innovative thinking at the workspace.
“Staff accommodation and work space challenges are critical needs and took out a chunk of yearly budgets, as the NDDC serviced avoidable subheads every fiscal year. This of course impacted on service delivery to the grassroot who deserve critical infrastructure and have been dying to have them in more than six decades of oil exploitation and exploration.”
The group said for the fact that a drain pipe which did not benefit the ordinary people of the region has been checkmated today should gladden the hearts of development experts, civil society organisations, and stakeholders.
Many said most state offices and even the main head quarters preferred paying rents probably because of vested interests in the rents.
Now, the NDRA says the NDDC management must go forward and block all avenues for leakages within their system and ensure monies meant for the people go into significantly improving the lives and livelihood of the people. “Twenty-five years down the line, the NDDC should not find itself in certain conditions opposite of what an interventionist agency should be. NDDC must not be a case of a doctor that cannot heal himself.”
The group said with the completion of an ultramodern office complex, staff quarters together with a clinic billed for commissioning on June 17 2025 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, “We charge the Ogbuku-led management to not rest on its oars by ensuring staff welfare continues to earn priority attention.
“Our stand as far as the region’s development interest is concerned remains that the Commission serves as a single purpose vehicle for driving responsible, responsive and accountable infrastructural changes capable of lifting the rural poor out of decades of poverty while remediating our immediate environment for future generations to live and survive on.
“To this end, cost saving measures should be adopted to end the era where funds meant for regional development are diverted into private pockets and corruption becomes the trademark of an Agency that should supposedly, meet the yearnings of 27 Senatorial districts in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
