CONSTITUTION OF ADVISORY BOARD COMMITTEE FOR NDDC: IYC Calls On FG To Inaugurate Substantive Board.

“In the absence of a substantive Board, the decision to appoint the Advisory Committee is illogical and would not serve any useful purpose”….. Eric Omare Esq.

“The decision in itself is a contradiction because, it is illogical for an advisory committee to be appointed to advise the Governing Board when in actual fact, there is no Governing board in existence”.

The decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria to constitute an Advisory Board Committee for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to advise the Governing Board in accordance with the NDDC Act, has drawn controversial reactions from stakeholders in the country.

This raging controversy has attracted the attention of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide, a major stakeholder in the affairs of the Niger Delta region and the NDDC in particular.

While the IYC welcomes the initiative by the federal government to comply with the requirements of the NDDC Act by constituting the Advisory Committee, it has however, drawn the attention of the government to certain errors that are obviously, in contradiction to its intent.

The IYC Worldwide, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and widely circulated to media outfits, it expressed its wish, to state clearly that the decision in itself is a contradiction because, it is illogical for an advisory committee to be appointed to advise the Governing Board when in actual fact, there is no Governing board in existence.

According to the statement which was signed by its National President, Mr. Eric Omare, Esq. it queried the decision in setting up an Advisory Committee for a yet to be constituted Governing Board of the NDDC.

“If we may ask the Federal Government, especially the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio; which Governing Board would the Advisory Committee advice in the absence of a substantive board of the NDDC?

“We are of the strong view that the proper thing that the Federal Government ought to do is to inaugurate the Board of the NDDC before the constituting the Advisory Committee to advise the board”.

Omare, in the statement noted that, “in the absence of a substantive Board, the decision to appoint the Advisory Committee is illogical and would not serve any useful purpose”.

“Consequently, we call on the federal government to put on hold, the planned inauguration of the Advisory Committee of the NDDC and inaugurate the board of the NDDC before inaugurating the Advisory committee”, the IYC National President counseled.