The lawmaker representing Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Donald Ojogo, has called on President Bola Tinubu to rectify alleged alienation of the South West in appointments to the governing board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Ojogo said exclusion of the South West, particularly Ondo State, has reinforced perception that leadership positions, especially NDDC managing director, are exclusive to South South states.
In a letter addressed to the President, Ojogo, who was the immediate past Ondo State Commissioner for Information, and the first Arogbo-Ijaw man to serve as a federal lawmaker in the National Assembly, expressed disapproval over exclusion of the South West from appointments to the NDDC. He described the situation as disdainful and repulsive.
Highlighting provisions of Section 12(1) of the NDDC Establishment Act, 2000, the lawmaker said the legislation affirms that the positions of managing director and two executive directors should rotate among member states.
He urged Tinubu to take action and ensure compliance with the law, stressing the importance of fairness and equal representation.
He appealed to the President to consider the spirit of the NDDC Act by appointing an indigene of Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in Ondo State as the next managing director of NDDC.
The lawmaker stressed that such appointment would dispel perception that the South West does not have rightful claim to the position of managing director, which has been consistently dominated by South South states.
The letter reads in part: “There shall be for the commission a managing director and two executive directors who shall be indigenes of oil-producing areas, starting with the member states of the commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate among member states in the order of production.
“The South West, whose representation Providence has naturally placed on Ondo State, is the fifth in the production quota. Ondo State, therefore, ought to have been considered for the position of managing director, even in the last governing board of the NDDC that has just been dissolved.
“In considering appointments into other positions such as executive director(s) and state representative on the NDDC governing board, only indigenes of oil-producing area should be appointed.”
