Poor implementation of existing plans has been identified as bane of Niger Delta economic development and regional integration, including that of the South-South and Southeast.

Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Mrs Ibim Semenitari, cited as example, the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan, which has not been fully embraced by critical stakeholders.

Semenitari, who stated this at the 2nd Southeast, South-South Development Forum, held in Port Harcourt, insisted that the major problem of the region was not lack of plans but the non-implementation of existing ones.

She stressed the need for a more engaging and robust cooperation and collaboration among all stakeholders, from
communities to the civil society organisations, as well as companies and agencies operating in the area.

According to her, “For us to succeed as one force unified against regional poverty, against infrastructural gaps and all the indices of adverse development, it is important for us to unite under one unimpeachable vision.”

She described the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan, which the NDDC facilitated, as a worthy pathway and roadmap to sustainable development.

Semenitari stressed “It is important that all of us work together to return that plan to its place of pride, as the central document to drive development in the region.”

She explained that the master plan was the aggregate of collective yearnings and expectations of the entire Niger Delta, which was fashioned into homegrown demands.