IJAW Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide has thrown its weight behind a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with the United States-based Atlanta Global Resources Inc. (AGRI) to build a railway network to connect all states in the region.
The IYC President, Peter Timothy Igbifa, in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said stakeholders were excited by the move and were eagerly waiting for the realisation of the project.
Igbifa, who described the development as a paradigm shift from the past focus of the NDDC on quick-win projects, said sustainable and enduring projects like the proposed railway network would stimulate economic activities required to develop the region.
The IYC boss argued that the railway network, if realised, would be the first project for regional integration and development, which he said was in tandem with the core mandate of the Commission.
Igbifa said N’Delta stakeholders were praying for the NDDC to pursue the proposed project to a logical conclusion, saying traditional rulers, youth groups, women, among others, were united in support of the commission to ensure the success of the project.
Igbifa appealed to partners to the project not to allow anybody to discourage them from working with the management of the NDDC, saying: “Niger Delta is bigger than any individual.”
He warned that youths and other stakeholders from the region would not allow a few envious and negative-minded individuals to scuttle the proposed project.
He said: “When reports emerged from the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Summit organised by the NDDC that the commission had signed an MoU with a globally-rated US-based company to harness technical, material and financial resources for a railway network to connect all the states in the Niger Delta, the region erupted in jubilation.
“We saw it as an answered prayer because we have been advocating a regional project of such magnitude to ensure developmental integration required to catalyse the economic growth of the Niger Delta.
“We have said that the core mandate of the NDDC is birthing big ticket projects that will link the entire Niger Delta region for sustainable development. NDDC was not created only to construct street roads and build houses. It was established to galvanise the rapid development of the region, which can only be achieved with projects of regional integration.”
