The Commissioner Representing Cross River State on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Rt. Hon. Orok Duke has decried the level of underdevelopment in the Cross River State despite the huge funds allocated to the interventionist agency in the last 23 years.
He noted that it is time to give back what belongs to Cross Riverians or face a fight.
Duke said this shortly after assuming office at the state NDDC office situated at Murtala Mohammed Highway Calabar, Cross Rivers State.
According to him, the Act establishing the NDDC is anchored on equality among the 9 states, and the oil production quota is only considered a yardstick in the appointment of a Managing Director for the Commission.
"There's no mention of production quota in the whole of NDDC Act. None at all. There's no sharing formula, the same way it is captured in the Northeast Development Commission. When it comes to derivation, Cross River gets zero. Then they put money in the basket to go and develop the 9 states of the Niger Delta, and you still come to give Cross River zero?
"Every month, 15 percent of our budget is deducted, every month 50 percent of ecological fund is deducted and paid to NDDC, every month 3 percent of IOC money is deducted and sent to NDDC. We have a situation where if these monies were deducted and paid to Cross River we would have more than N15billion per year. But routing it through NDDC we have less, and people think it's normal and it has been going on for 23 years.
"We have projects that are screaming for attention worth well over N15billion. What do we do? You now pile pressure on the state. The state already has scarce resources with competing demands. NDDC is an interventionist agency. Let them do their work. They should stop cheating Cross River State. The same south-south people are subjugating the other state. It is not acceptable. Out of N900billion, they restrict us to N15billion, and out of the N15billion, they say we cannot spend more than N7billion. What will N7billion do for Cross River," Duke lamented.
He argued that Cross River deserves the best from NDDC because according to him, the state is the only APC-controlled state in the entire south-south geopolitical zone; and this, he maintained, must be consolidated in line with President Bola Tinubu's 8-point agenda.
Duke, however, expressed optimism that with the full support of the state governor, Prince Bassey Otu, Cross River will most likely achieve its ambition of a better deal within the framework of NDDC.
Meanwhile, the NDDC Commissioner has frowned at the poor attitude of the state office towards project monitoring, which according to him, has left individuals and politicians claiming ownership of the agency's projects and using the same to score political points.
He, therefore, charged the Department of the Project to ensure that signposts are erected at the sites of all projects that are being executed by the NDDC across the state, affirming that the Commission must take the credit for its projects, both completed and ongoing.
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