The House of Representatives stood down a motion asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rescind the decision to change the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to the Ministry for Regional Development.
The House resolved to step down the motion sponsored by Oboku Oforji (PDP-Bayelsa), which was stepped down by the House because “it has been overtaken by events.”
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, after the debate on the motion, disclosed that he met with President Tinubu last week and got the assurance that he was favourably disposed to receiving the South-South Development Commission Bill to cater for specific issues of the Niger Delta region.
He therefore told the lawmaker that, in light of the information and due to the fact that the issues within the motion have already been overtaken by other events, he should allow the House to step down the motion.
In his remarks, Majority Leader, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, said even though the issues contained in the motion were germane, the conversion of the Niger Delta Development Ministry to that of the Ministry of Regional Development will not in any way deny the Niger Delta region of its due development nor reduce its impact in the region, but only to broaden its scope to the development of other regions.
Earlier, while moving the motion, Oforji recalled that the Ministry of Niger Delta Development was created on September 10, 2008, by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who appointed Ufot Ekaette as the first Minister.
According to him, the Ministry of Niger Delta was created to promote and coordinate policies for the development, peace, unity, and security of the Niger Delta Region and is expected to formulate and execute plans, programs, and other initiatives, as well as coordinate the activities of agencies, communities, donors, and other relevant stakeholders involved in the development of the Niger Delta Region.
He said the late President Yar’Adua had good intentions and foresight for creating the ministry as a way to ameliorate the suffering, agitations, and neglect of the region for decades by successive governments. A region that produces the economic wealth of the country and yet is poor and poorly governed.
He stressed that years of oil spillage, lack of arable land, social amenities, etc. had necessitated the emergence of militancy in the oil-rich region.
“It was in the short term of late President Yar’Adua ‘s leadership from Katsina State that dialogue was initiated with major stakeholders in the region and militants culminating in the Amnesty Programme that has brought relative peace to the oil-rich Niger Delta Region.
“These were preludes to the creation of the ministry, which was aimed at infrastructural development, environmental protection, and empowerment of the youths in the oil-rich Niger Delta Region.
“Are we there yet? The answer is no, but the people of the Niger Delta believe that the lofty dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the region will be actualised someday, hence their embrace of the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta Development,” Hon. Oforji noted.
He expressed concern that “on the 24th of October 2024, the oil-rich region witnessed palpable tension following the announcement of the scrapping of the ministry of Niger Delta Development by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“This is not a good omen for a region that has contributed immensely to the economic development of our country and has enjoyed some relative peace.”
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