Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike have lambasted the Niger Delta Development Commission – NDDC, for earmarking N4 billion just to clean public drains, claiming its laughable.

Politicians, according to Governor Wike, are pressuring the National Assembly to swiftly pass the N500B NDDC 2023 budget before the general elections.

In light of this, governor Wike has raised doubts over the 2023 NDDC budget’s potential to handle regional development challenges before the National Assembly.

Governor Wike made the remarks when the Senior Vice Chairman/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Azu Ishiekwene led a delegation of the management of Leadership Newspaper Group Limited to the Government House, Port Harcourt on Monday to present a nomination letter of award to him as the “Politician of the Year 2022.”

Also, the delegation of Sun Newspaper Publishing Limited was led by the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Onuohia Ukah, presented a letter of nomination of award of “Courage in Leadership 2022”

Within the total estimated amount of N500 billion, Governor Wike disclosed that N70 billion is anticipated from Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), N4 billion is designated for the distillation of public drains, and N60 billion is designated as support for security agencies.

A close examination of the specifics of the various estimates, according to the governor of Rivers State, demonstrates that the budget is fake.

According to Governor Wike, it is absurd to see a development organization like NDDC allotting N4 billion to clean public drains when it is expected to focus on regional development issues.

He questioned why the NDDC would allocate N60 billion to the security agency rather than use money to complete an ongoing project and observe the resulting effects.

Governor Wike asserted that political pressure is already building on National Assembly members to swiftly pass the NDDC budget so that money may be distributed in advance of the upcoming general election in 2023.

Governor Wike continued by lamenting the fact that it is becoming nearly impossible to witness people sticking to the truth, whether it helps them or not.

𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕?
𝑾𝒆’𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘!