The Edo State Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Mercy Babawale, on Wednesday, told communities to take charge of projects in their domain.
The director who gave this advice at stakeholders meeting in Benin, said it was the responsibility of communities and youths to make sure NDDC projects in their areas are protected for the benefit of all.
The director who spoke to crowd of stakeholders, made up of mostly youths, from communities across the Niger Delta in an event themed: “Capacity Building Engagement: Community Ownership & Protection of NDDC Projects,” said communities and youths are to take ownership of projects cited in their area.
According to her, “You have to take charge of the projects. You take charge of that which we are bringing to your community. You people should help ensure that these projects are properly developed and maintained.”
She explained the projects are theirs, “we bring them to the community. Yes, we actually initiate them. But eventually, they are your projects at the community level when completed.”
Babawale noted that from this point of completion the communities are owners of the projects, saying you can now “take charge of that which we are bringing to your community, you people will help ensure that these projects are properly developed and maintained.”
Urging the participants to be part of the projects by making sure the standard is met, she called on them to call the commission’s attention to sub-standard jobs by contractors.
She tasked the participants to monitor any projects even before they get to the finishing stage to confirm if they are executed poorly or not. All through this process, the community is supposed to be a huge part of it.
“So, you know that when projects come to a community, it is not a stranger who just runs them. From that point on, we expect that you will also be a part of the development of the projects. When there is a problem with the standard, you have to call us and say, what we are seeing now is not what is projected.”
She referenced event in the past when people had complained of low standard and immediate action was taken.
She assured that the major reason for the projects is to ensure that Niger Delta is developed. “So, when we bring these projects in, the contractor comes in, after the site is handled, it starts to work, our engineers and our technical team oversee this project to ensure that we meet all the standards.”
Explaining how the project is birthed, Mrs. Babawale disclosed that “for each of our projects, we have processes. We start with the process of what we call site handling. This is trying to make it as brief as possible.
“When a contractor gets a project, we go over the site. In the process, we ask the State Coordinator for the project to play a part in the site handling process. That means that communities themselves must be fully represented.”
Sir Ovie Mathias, Project Coordinator, called on the community people to monitor some of these projects going on in their areas. “I want to encourage everyone of us is to pay attention, feel free to also tell us the challenges that you face in your various communities, because we are going to write a report at the end of the day. So, don’t keep quiet and say you don’t want to talk. So, if you tell us what you are going through in your community, we will be able to put it down,” he said.
He stressed that projects are initiated based on assessment need of a particular community, explaining that projects are attracted through proposals to the commission by a community that lacks or wants a particular project.
He counseled communities to feel free to put in writing their particular needs to commission.
Felix Omoh-Asun
