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HomeEducationFG To Complete, Commission Abandoned Skills Acquisition Centre In 2 Months

FG To Complete, Commission Abandoned Skills Acquisition Centre In 2 Months

By.Tony Mba

The Honorable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umana Okon Umana has hinted that the Ibeno Skills Acquisition Centre will be commissioned in the next two months.

The Minister disclosed this recently, during an interview on a radio Nigeria audience participatory programme “Politics Nationwide”. He hinted that in skills acquisition centres, there was good planning that addressed specific areas of needs. For example, “The one in Akwa Ibom State which should be commissioned in the next two months, focuses on oil and gas training and you know that specialized area of training is something that the youths in the region need so that they can acquire the necessary skills for the oil and gas industry. The one in Imo also addresses another area, either agriculture”.

He promised that all the skills acquisition centres will be handed over to the various state once they are completed, “what we are doing is that, on completion of these centres, we will hand them over to the relevant institutions in the various states so that we can be sure that they will be effectively used”.

Obong Umana maintained That President Buhari’s administration has done very well in the Niger Delta region. pledging to publish a compendium of projects completed by the Buhari’s administration from 2015 to date through the Ministry of Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by next month. He said the publication is to enhance transparency and accountability in the region as the report would be made available for public scrutiny by all the stakeholders in the region.

On the background of the Ministry of Niger Delta, the Minister disclosed that the ministry was created in 2008 and it was part of the package that the federal government put in place to address issues of development in the Niger Delta Region. ” The creation of Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was one of the items in the package. You would also add the 13 percent derivation which was approved for the oil producing states in the Niger Delta Region. You had the Amnesty Programme there and also had, very significant, the establishment of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). All of these were put in place to address the developmental issues in the region”.

Obong Umana further explained that the East West road has been a defining project of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and by extension the prime project of the Niger Delta Region. He added that the road is a 338 kilometer dual carriage way that starts from Oron in Akwa Ibom State and runs through virtually all the States in the region to Warri in Delta State. From the records, about 80% of the road project has been completed.

Meanwhile, the Minister has disclosed that President Buhari had last year directed the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to hand over the project to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. He said a significant segment of the road that the Ministry of Works is to address is the Eleme – Onne section, A 15 kilometre stretch which is going to be a Six Dual Carriage Way because it covers the Industrial Hub that houses the Eleme Refinery, the Indorama Petrochemical Plant, the Notore Complex and Free Zone, the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone as well as the Onne Port. In view of the above, the Minister stated that it was necessary for the project to be properly done and the Ministry of Works is to see to its completion.

While urging the people of the region and communities affected by that stretch of the road to look forward to happy days as the Ministry of Works has secured funding for the project through the Tax Credit Scheme, stressing that the efforts of the federal government in putting structures to address developmental issues in the region have been impactful. “It could have been better, but I don’t think it would be fair to write off the efforts of all the structures federal government has put in place”.

On the housing scheme of the ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Minister said that ” the strategy deployed by the ministry was to establish a housing estate in each of the nine states of the region and this project has been completed in virtually all the states. So, they are still trying to ensure that issues about the provisions of all the basic sites and services are concluded. The one in Akwa Ibom State had some issues about drainage and flooding which is being addressed. The one in Cross River State; the returnees from Bakassi and some other indigenes of Cross River became beneficiaries. The federal government decided that the houses should be allocated. That has been done. The strategy has changed now. Rather than continue to build houses, we will now allocate land to those who applied so that they can continue to build houses in those estates. But again, that is one project that has been done”.

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