Posted by Yar'Adua demands honesty from govs of oil producing states on
Speaking at a stakeholders' forum on the Niger Delta Development Commission's master plan, which he convened at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and attended by most governors of the region, Yar'Adua insisted that a greater display of honesty and transparency on the part of leaders would help in solving the problems of the Niger Delta.
"If the people can see that their leaders are honest, they will understand, but once they see that their leaders are in power to make money, then there will be a problem," he stated.
Stressing the need for the leaders to begin to build the trust of their people, the president urged state governors to "realize that the 13 per cent derivation to oil producing states is a development fund, which should not go into recurrent expenditure," pointing out, "once you begin to spend capital budget on recurrent expenditure, the essence of government is defeated."
On the master plan, he said that the real challenge was to put in place an implementation mechanism that would transform it from being mere paper work to concrete realities on ground.
He directed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to liaise with the nine states of the region in order to synchronize the 15-year master plan.
President Yar'Adua, who also emphasized the imperative of peace in the actualization of the master plan, fixed the end of August for another stakeholders' forum to address the funding of the implementation of the plan beginning with the 2008 budget.
Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, governors of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River , Delta, Imo, and Rivers states as well as the deputy governor of Edo State, the NDDC chairman and managing director attended the forum.
The governor of Cross River State, Senator Lyel Imoke, who briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, said the master plan would, when implemented, achieve the holistic development of the entire oil producing region.
He said the essence of the meeting was to come up with a coordinated approach, which will ensure that what is on the plan was translated into reality so as not to end up as a mere theory as had been the case with such programmes in the past.
The managing director of the NDDC, Chief Timi Alaibe, said the structure of the funding arrangement of the plan was for all development agencies and service providers to take on their responsibilities as planned by each of their states or local governments as the case may be.
Said he: "What it then means is that those priorities and plans or service providers, such as state governments, local governments and oil companies will be implemented by them. It is not that people are contributing to a pool. The implementing institutions include the federal, state and local governments, the NDDC, the oil companies and even the private sector," he stated.
"We signed an MOU with UBA (United Bank for Africa) to act as financial advisers in the implementation of the plan. What that means is that as we progress and we involve bankable projects, these projects should be able to be financed by various forms using financial engineering networks either by equity or by loan. It is the financial services industry that will assist in the realization of those dreams rather than we picking responsibilities that the professionals will pick.
"The key point also is that some of the projects can be private sector driven. Projects that can be funded back to back, we do not need to wait for statutory allocation from the Federal Government. That project, when evolved, can be funded by the private sector. That is the spirit of the MOU."