The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has said that inaugurating Advisory and Monitoring Committees for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) without a substantive board in place is akin to building a house without foundation. This is so because the NDDC is built on the tripod of Governing Board, Advisory and Monitoring Committees. 

The substantive board which includes the management committee is to initiate and implement policies and programmes for the Commission with the Advisory Committee offering advise to the board on the initiation and execution of the policies and programmes.  Then the Monitoring Committee’s responsibility is to monitor the execution of the policies and programmes embarked upon by the Board.

Therefore, without a substantive Governing Board in place, it amounts to an exercise in futility and a violation of the NDDC Act for the President to appoint a Monitoring Committee and inaugurate Advisory committee. The Federal Government’s deliberate refusal to comply with the NDDC Act with respect to the appointment of a substantive board under the guise of an endless and opaque forensic audit is baffling.

The Niger Delta region has suffered unaccountable losses because of the absence of a board of the NDDC. We note that billions of Naira has been spent by the illegal contraption called, Interim Management Committee without accountability and impact on the people of the region. 

Therefore, we wish to state for the umpteenth time and call on President Buhari to inaugurate the substantive board of the NDDC without delay in compliance with the Act and in the interest of the development of the region. We state that having a board is not an obstacle to the forensic audit of the NDDC.

Signed for the IYC:
Eric Omare, President, IYC