NDDC urges Delta communities to take ownership of projects to curb vandalism
CHIGOZIE NAMADI
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has called on communities across Delta State to take full ownership of its development projects, warning that community involvement is essential to curb the growing scourge of vandalism and ensure the long-term sustainability of public infrastructure.
The appeal was made during a capacity-building seminar held on Tuesday at Pretelia Hotel, Airport Road, Warri, where stakeholders from across the state’s local government areas convened to discuss strategies for safeguarding public assets.
Speaking at the event, the Assistant Director and Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers, Engineer Sweet Odulami, who represented the Delta State Director of the NDDC, Onoriode Omodoyo, expressed alarm at the persistent destruction of projects despite the commission’s developmental efforts.
“We noticed that our projects are being vandalised inasmuch as the commission is doing all it can to ensure development in communities in Delta State.
As a result, the NDDC came up with this programme to educate stakeholders that they are the owners of the projects and they should take responsibility and charge of the projects.
They should monitor the project so that they won’t be vandalised,” she said.
Odulami noted that the commission had made significant strides in recent times, particularly with the installation of solar-powered streetlights across communities in the region.
“The NDDC has been doing much and the director noticed recently that it is important to light up the Niger Delta. You can see the work everywhere.
Solar light is in almost every community, providing light for the indigenes of the Niger Delta,” she added.
She stressed that the seminar was timely, reinforcing the importance of community ownership in sustaining development.
“The seminar came at the right time to educate the people, because knowledge is power.
It came to make the people know that the projects the NDDC is doing in their communities are their projects, and they have to take charge of them and maintain them against theft and vandalisation.
“My message to the participants is for them to take charge. They should know that the project is their project. Truly, nobody will come from outside to vandalise a community project.
If they take these projects as their own, they will monitor them and protect them from theft and vandalisation,” she said.
Odulami disclosed that similar sensitisation programmes were being rolled out across the Niger Delta region.
“We carry out seminars from time to time to sensitise and educate the indigenes of Niger Delta communities on the safety monitoring of their projects.
We have visited all the Niger Delta states aside from Edo State, which we will be going to tomorrow,” she said.
Also speaking, the facilitator of the programme and Director of Peace and Development Project, Francis Abayomi, said the initiative was designed to deepen development by ensuring that communities understood their roles in safeguarding projects.
“The programme is about deepening development in the Niger Delta, to get the communities aware of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring that projects implemented by the NDDC are protected within the communities.
“A lot of projects that have been implemented have been destroyed and vandalised out of ignorance and as a result of a lack of engagement in the communities,” Abayomi said.
The programme coordinator, Ovie Mathias, explained that the initiative aimed to shift the prevailing mindset among residents from viewing projects as belonging to the government to seeing them as communal assets.
“The idea behind this programme is that over the past years, we have gathered information on how NDDC projects are being vandalised.
Some projects that have been done are being destroyed by the host communities, and we thought it wise that it is high time the community knew that they are the owners of the project.
So we are now moving from the era of ‘it is their project’ to ‘it is our project.’ Because if it is our project, you won’t destroy or vandalise it,” he said.
Mathias added that representatives from communities across Delta State were in attendance and that the programme would be sustained annually to continuously engage youths and stakeholders.
“All the communities in Delta State are fully represented here.
We have representatives from various communities in the different local government areas.
We wish to sustain this exercise as long as the NDDC keeps working, so this programme is going to be a yearly programme.
We need to engage our youths, and this interactive session is going to come up over and over again so that our youths will be conscious of what they are doing.
They will know that every project they have in their communities is theirs,” he said.
A participant from Okere community in Warri South Local Government Area also commended the initiative, noting that it had provided stakeholders with the knowledge needed to protect public projects.
“Today’s event is to educate us and enlighten us on how to own NDDC projects, to protect them and to avoid vandalising NDDC projects.
They told us the implications of vandalising those projects.
We are very much ready as key stakeholders to protect and own NDDC projects around us.
We have been educated by the commission, so it is left for us to go home and enlighten our people on the importance of protecting and owning these projects,” he said.
