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The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the misguided advice on the next Chairmanship of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and do what is right.
        A statement issued in Abuja by the National Secretary of the NYCN Blessing Akinlosotu, said that the President could not be misled by those wrongly advising him to go against the NDDC Act. Reacting to a publication in the media on June 22 tagged ‘Yoruba elders make u-turn, advise Buhari on next NDDC Chairman, the group stated that it was wrong for the Elders’ Forum to want the NDDC Act jettisoned. The NYCN appealed to President Buhari to take a critical look at the matter, stressing that Ondo state was next in line for the Chairmanship of the NDDC. According to Section 4 of the NDDC Act, the office of the Chairman shall rotate amongst the member states of the Commission in the following alphabetical order: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers and shall continue in that order throughout the life of the Commission. Consequently, since the establishment of the NDDC, the Chairman of the Governing Board has been appointed in accordance with the principle of rotation as outlined in the NDDC Act. That of the Managing Director was captured in Section 12 (1) of the NDDC Act which states inter alia, “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director, and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas starting with the member state of the Commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate amongst member states in order of production”. This clear and unambiguous provision of the NDDC Act means that every member state shall produce the MD of the Commission in a rotational manner following a sequential order that uses the quantum of oil production starting with the state with the highest production at the time of the establishment of the commission. In our opinion, this faceless group is not knowledgeable about the law and the act that established the NDDC. We hereby call on Mr. President to help make the law effective as Ondo State is the next in line for the position of Managing Director of the Commission. We believe in fairplay and equity for peaceful coexistence of the Niger Delta people’s as anything short of this may lead to mass protest,” the NYCN said.