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…says there must be a mechanism for accountability, stability
By Ike Uchechukwu, Calabar
Former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, SAN has asserted that the people of the Niger Delta region must stay focused on how to judiciously use the 3% they have received.
Sen. Ndoma Egba made the assertion in an interview at the weekend in Calabar stressing that stakeholders from the region and the people at large must ensure that there were mechanisms for accountability and transparency in a bid to ensure optimal utilisation of whatever they got
His words: “My position is that we should not put the cart before the horse. If you have a plot of land you cannot develop first without having a survey plan and then a building plan not to talk of a region.
“How do you develop a region without having a plan? For me, whether it’s three per cent or five per cent it’s premature. The ultimate goal is we get to a point where we have true federalism that every region, every state controls its resources.
“That is the ultimate goal. But before we get to that position, we should establish systems that will guarantee transparency and every year we measure where we are in terms of development.
“We must ensure that there are mechanisms for accountability and transparency in the use of these funds, without a master plan for the region, without serious stakeholders committed to the implementation of a predetermined master plan for the region, you will just be getting more money to fritter away.
“For me at this point in time, it will make more sense to me if we have a mechanism to ensure that the three per cent that has been provided for is transparently and judiciously used to develop the region and that is what has been lacking in the region.
“We had watertight stakeholders developed a master plan for the region but it was abandoned as soon as it was passed.
Speaking further, he said the percentage we got was not the most important thing at this point, but what we get must reflect in terms of the development of the region.
He said:” So the issue is not how much money you have but what will come out of that money. We have seen quite a lot but what have we seen to reflect the amount of money we received in the region in the last 20 years?
“So if you do not have any strategy, methodology, any mechanism for transparency and accountability you will be just be getting more money to waste,” he said
Vanguard News Nigeria
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