Passionate Plea to Buhari on Inauguration of NDDC Board without Further Delay
Charles Aberebiegha shows a strong cause for urgent intervention of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress and President Muhammadu Buhari for the inauguration of the Senate-approved Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, which appears t
As has been previously predicted by watchers of unfolding events in the volatile Niger Delta region, tension seems to be reaching fever-pitch as the INEC required electoral activities leading up to the 2023 elections are happening across the federation and throwing up issues.
Specifically in the Niger Delta region, a group, “Committed members of the APC from the Niger Delta Region,” led by the trio of Ebibomo Akpoebide, Menegbo Nwinuamene, and Itam Edem have, in quick succession fired two stronglyworded letters to President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), following the conclusion of the special conventions of the nation’s two leading parties, the PDP and APC, respectively.
As if to underscore the sense of urgency that they perceive, less than 48- hours after the emergence of Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, as the Presidential candidate of the opposition PDP, this group of “Committed APC members from the Niger Delta region” sent in their first correspondence “Letter to President Buhari and the APC Leadership on the Ongoing Illegality in the NDDC and the Implications for the APC in the 2023 Elections.”
In the extensive and detailed letter, complete with facts, dates and history of what has transpired in NDDC and the region from 2015, when President Buhari took office, till date, the group raised alarm on the looming consequences of the ruling party’s ill-treatment of the region, especially what it described as the “ongoing illegality in NDDC.” Matter of fact, the group specifically cautioned that “as it stands, the APC cannot win an election in the region except the missteps in NDDC are remedied and the NDDC substantive Board is inaugurated in accordance with the law setting up the Commission.”
The group in the above letter went to length to state how they believe that Senator Godswill Akpabio, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, laboured strenuously to try and subvert the collective will and desire of the authentic stakeholders of the Niger Delta region. According to them, Chief Akpabio, a two-term governor of Akwa Ibom State and Senator until 2018 under the PDP, “came to reverse the bold moves to cement the party in the Niger Delta states. He has set the party back in many respects but we are hopeful that with concerted efforts by stakeholders we can regain our footholds before the next general election, which is very crucial. This is why we are glad that his resignation offers a chance to correct the ills and win back the trust of our people.”
Continuing, the trio of Akpoebide, Nwinuamene, and Edem opined that the resignation of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Akpabio, “offers your administration the opportunity to reboot and reclaim its connection with the Niger Delta people after three years of the former Minister’s disastrous manipulation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which has angered all stakeholders in the region. He has been especially disagreeable even in advancing the interests of the people of our region, not to talk of the damage he has done to your reputation and the All Progressives Congress (APC) among the people, especially the voting population.”