A Niger Delta pressure Group under the aegis of Niger Delta Interest Watchdog (NDIW), has urged the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, to appoint the member representing the good people of Akuku-toru/Asari-toru Federal Constituency, Hon. Boma Goodhead, as Chairman House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Daboikiabo Z. Warmate, in a statement titled: ‘Boma Goodhead, best fit for the House Committee Chairman on NDDC, and made available to CitizenNews24 on Sunday, urged the House of Representative Leadership as ably led by the Hon. Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, to consider Hon. Boma Goodhead for the chairmanship.
According to the Group, “Boma Goodhead is eminently qualified to chair the Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the following reasons;
1. She is an indigene of the Niger Delta region of Rivers State,
2. Her Constituency is an oil-producing area,
3. She stood in defense of the sanctity of the parliament and democracy, even when her male colleagues could not face the fierce-looking Department of State Security Service (SSS or DSS), when they came to desecrate the halo chambers,
4. She is very vast and familiar with the developmental needs of the people of the Niger Delta region and as such, will do a better oversight of the Commission,
5. She is a ranking member, with a passion for the development of the Niger Delta region.”
The Group however, expressed regrets that the anticipated development of the Niger Delta region has continued to elude the region largely based on corruption occasioned by political patronage, thus, leaving the region in a state of perpetual environmental degradations, human and socioeconomic squalor.
Political patronage has led to the shortchanging of the people because, those who do not have direct relation to the suffering, abandonment, and environmental degradation the people are facing, are appointed.
Hence, the NDDC’s inability to really achieve its mandate and impact the lives of the people of the Niger Delta region. Bearing in mind that, NDDC is an institution established to cater for the environmental degradation caused by oil exploration in the Niger Delta region by oil companies.”
“We, therefore, call on the House of Representatives leadership not to yield to pressure to retain or reappoint Hon. Tunji Ojo as the Chairman House Committee on NDDC on the basis of fairness, equity, and justice. We are advocating for true representation by the lawmaker from the mandate areas of Akuku-toru/Asari-toru Federal Constituency, who was raised amidst the pains, subjugation, strangulation, degradation, abandonment, and suffering incurred through oil exploration.
