A former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Chief O.C.J Okocha, SAN, has challenged the federal government not to allow the establishment of the North West Development Commission as well as the South East Development Commission to affect the funding and workings of the NDDC.
This came even as the NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku has expressed the readiness of the commission to continually work towards the development and sustenance of education in the country.
Two of them spoke on Wednesday Ogbuku during the 2024 moot and mock trial competition for law faculties of various universities in the Niger Delta region, which took place at the Dr Nabo Graham Douglas Port Harcourt Campus of the Nigerian Law School.
Okocha reasoned that it was necessary to put the federal government on notice, that it would be counter-productive if the NDDC is affected because of the birth of the development commissions meant for the south east and the north west regions.
Saying that human capacity building was a very important factor in the development of any region, Okocha observed that the recent establishment of the South-East Development Commission and the North-West Development Commission raised some fundamental questions, given the political considerations that informed the move.
He said: “I hope the establishment of these commissions will not whittle down the importance attached to the NDDC as a vehicle for the rapid development of the Niger Delta region. These new commissions should not be used to undermine the effectiveness and usefulness of the NDDC.
“The Niger Delta is still a special region that needs special attention from the central government as the goose that lays the golden eggs for the country. The NDDC has intervened in various areas of our educational development, such as its scholarship schemes, building hostels, providing electricity and many other infrastructure projects in educational institutions across the region.”
On his part, Ogbuku said in a keynote address that the commission had contributed in many ways towards the region’s development, including interventions in the education sector.
“Since our assumption of duty at the NDDC, we have made educational development and human capacity building our key policy thrust. The previous negative narrative of the NDDC is changing due to the conscious and sustained efforts to chart a new course of development for the region.
“After our Rewind to Rebirth initiative, we resolved to Transit from Transaction to Transformation, which entails making a real difference in the lives of our people, as part of our contribution to the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We have reactivated and strengthened our foreign post-graduate scholarship scheme, making it more merit-based and funding it adequately to prevent the challenges of the past. We also reactivated and strengthened our free medical outreach programme, which provides top notch healthcare to our people in the grassroots.”
He said the region had enhanced development of jurisprudence in Nigeria and contributed immensely to the development of the legal profession, adding that “the region boasts of producing some of the finest legal philosophers in Nigeria, from the Late Justice Udo Udoma, Late Justice Chukwudifo Oputa, Hon. Justice Ndoma-Egba, Justice Victor Ovie-Whiskey, Justice Niki Tobi, Justice Nabo Graham Douglas and Justice Walter Onoghen.
He announced that the NDDC would sponsor the oustanding faculty of law to undertake a one-month internship at the law firm of O.C.J Okocha in Port Harcourt.
Also speaking, Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, said that the commission would institutionalise the moot and mock competition to ensure that it endures.
He said that the commission would continue to play its statutory role in developing and supporting other efforts to advance education, as well as support the development of legal education through practical trainings to improve capacity.
Ebie maintained that the strengthening of law and order was critical to the development of the region because it would ensure that all stakeholders contributing to regional development operated within the limits and expectations of the law.
The NDDC chairman promised that the commission would underwrite the one-year subscription to the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports for all the participating law faculties in the Moot and Mock competition.
