THE governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has advised the new board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to focus on regional development projects that will impact more states.
Wike urged the board to embrace the execution of projects like constructing highways with bridges to link states.
The governor spoke while receiving the new chairman of the NDDC board, Lauretta Onochie, and other members of the board, who paid a courtesy visit on him at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Friday.
He said such projects would serve as economic corridors to ease interstate movements and promote socioeconomic integration within the region.
He said, “There is what we call regional development projects that can link up two states. Those are the kinds of things NDDC should go for and give to competent contractors. Leave all these portfolio contractors. Leave them alone. You have come to my state, and you have seen what I have done.
“If I didn’t use Julius Berger and had used these political contractors, you won’t have seen anything here. Of course, you know how expensive Julius Berger is,” the governor said.
He also advised the new board to change its strategy to achieve efficiency.
Wike maintained that such an approach should be the adoption by a regional development that would strictly commit to the holistic development of Niger Delta State.
The Rivers State governor said when projects are awarded, they should not be given to portfolio or political contractors, but to competent ones who will stick to delivering quality and enduring projects.
Onochie responded that they were visiting to formally introduce themselves to the governor as a stakeholder in the region.
She praised the “excellent” infrastructure delivered by the Wike administration, which she asserted has transformed the entire terrain of the state.
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