The House of Representatives has stepped down a motion asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rescind the decision to change the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development.
The motion which was sponsored by Oboku Oforji (PDP, Bayelsa) was stepped down by the House with the claim that “it had been overtaken by events”.
Speaking on the motion, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen told the House that he met with President Tinubu last week and he assured that he would be happy to receive 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 because the issues within the Motion have already been overtaken by other events, the mover of the motion should allow the House to step down the motion.
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Also speaking on the motion, House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere (APC, Edo) 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 as created on September 10 2008 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who appointed Ufot Ekaette as the first Minister.
According to him, the ministry 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, programmes 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 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 and social amenities etc. had necessitated the emergence of militancy in the oil-rich region.
He said “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 Progam that has brought relative peace to the oil-rich Niger Delta Region.
