The National Executive Committee of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) held a virtual meeting on Thursday, 11th March 2021, to deliberate on matters of urgent and critical importance to the Niger Delta region and the Forum. The meeting also appraised the state of affairs of the nation and the region.
The NEC meeting was the first after the emergence of the Forum’s new National Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, FNSE, who was nominated and confirmed on Wednesday, 3rd March 2021 by the PANDEF BoT, following the demise of the former National Chairman, (retired) Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, in December 2020.
Attendance at the NEC meeting, which was presided over by the National Chairman, included PANDEF National Officers and State Chairmen.
Rising from the National Executive Committee Meeting, after extensive deliberations, PANDEF made the following RESOLUTIONS:
1. Restates its commitment to engage with all critical stakeholders of the region, irrespective of political inclination, in its efforts to foster unity, lasting peace, security and sustainable development of the Niger Delta region for the benefit of present and future generations.
2. Rejects outrightly the intention of the Federal Government to deny the Government and people of Delta State Funds that rightly belong to the State by scheduling to spend the recovered £4.2 million Ibori loot on projects outside the State. Describes the plan as unlawful and immoral, and demands that the money be transferred to the Delta State Government when returned.
3. Commends Members of the House of Representatives on their patriotic, unanimous resolution at the Floor of the House, directing the Federal Government to halt the spending plan of the recovered Ibori loot and upholding that the money should be handed over to Delta State once it was returned by the United Kingdom (UK). And urges the Senate to do likewise.
4. Criticizes the Federal Executive Council’s approval of the reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road at an outrageous amount of N797 Billion while Road projects in the Niger Delta Region have been fund-starved or abandoned. Meanwhile, Oil and Gas resources from the Niger Delta remain the Nation’s economic mainstay. This sort of inequitable approval does not only further characterizes the Federal Government as non-nationalistic but also undermines national concord and peace.
5. Decries that no inch of construction has been added to the East-West Road, which connects the six states of the South-South Geopolitical Zone, in the almost six-year life period of the present administration. Leading to a situation whereby the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs has been, reportedly, compelled to apportion N15 Billion of its paltry budgetary allocation for the year 2021, to facilitate minimal works on the Road. While similar, and even less significant project constructions in the country are placed under SUKUK funds, AfDB, recovered Abacha loot, etcetera.
6. Commends the ongoing Forensic Audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and urges its speedy conclusion. However, notes with concern, the continued non-composition of a substantive Board and management for the Commission by the Federal Government, and therefore, calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to, without, further delay, reconstitute the Board of the NDDC.
7. Applauds the Ministry of Niger Affairs, the supervising ministry of NDDC and the interim management of the Commission on the completion and commissioning of the corporate headquarters of the NDDC in Port Harcourt, which had been abandoned for many years, while noting that the Niger Delta People expect and deserve substantial regional projects.
8. Lauds the Governors of the South-South Geopolitical Zone for reviving the BRACED Commission and further calls on the Governors to wholly support the Commission to deliver on its mandate of fast-tracking socio-economic development in the region.
9. Decries the general poor state of infrastructure in the Niger Delta region, and thus, calls on the Federal and State Governments to take urgent steps to address the dearth of infrastructure in the region; and, particularly, calls for the commencement of work on the Warri-Port Harcourt rail line and the coastal railway from Calabar to Lagos, as well as the neglected Calabar – Ikot Ekpene Road, supposedly one of the roads under the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
10. Commends the government and people of the Niger Delta region, the South-South Geopolitical Zone in particular, for the continued support and solidarity with the Forum.
Issued and Adopted on Thursday, 11th March 2021.
The communique was signed by the new national chairman of PANDEF, Senator Ibok Emmanuel Essien.
