The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has challenged the traditional rulers, leaders and indigenes of the Niger Delta to embark on soul searching on the roles they played in the application of the $40 billion which the federal government disbursed for the development of the region in the last10 years.
The minister, who spoke to the traditional rulers from the Niger Delta when they paid him a visit in Abuja, regretted that when he went round the creeks, he found no infrastructure that reflects the money disbursed to the region through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or the 13 per cent derivation from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Kachikwu, who is from Delta State, said that the Federal Government is interested in releasing money for the development of the Niger Delta, if governance and transparency are addressed, saying that unless the issue of transparency in the management of funds is solved no further release of cash would be made.
“If you look at the amount of money that has been out into the Niger Delta over the last 10 years, in papers it is over $40billion. These have come from NDDC; it has come from derivation, it has come from oil companies’ investments.
“Over $40billion, but as I go to the creek, I see no single infrastructure that you can point to to say this is the result for these investments. So what it means is that we must begin to do some soul searching ourselves: where did all this money go to. Who to them, what where they applied for ? What were the roles of our own people and others no necessary from the Niger Delta and how this money was applied .
“Because unless you solve the governance and transparency issue in terms of spending this money it doesn’t matter how much money put into the place you are going to go back to square one.
“So the first fundamental question we must begin to ask now is how are these institutions run? How are these monies placed and what roles do our traditional rulers play in the decision making process on how these projects are supposed to …
“And how can we put a sense of responsibility on delivering on the infrastructural imperative ? So there is a lot of home truth that must happen.” [myad]
