The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has said that he ordered the revocation of the N10 billion skill acquisition centres in Edo and Delta states to uphold President Goodluck Jonathan’s promises of meeting up the development needs of the region.
?Explaining that the move was to cushion whatever effects the slow pace of the project which cost about N5billion each would have caused the host community, the minister revealed that the first phase of the project in the nine states of the region would be commissioned in January, 2o12.
Orubebe who stated this in Port Harcourt yesterday while fielding questions from journalists during an inspection tour to some projects sites in the region, further stated that the projects were originally awarded as a measure of boosting the economic and infrastructural development plans of the region.
He said ‘as a region expected to be the tourism hub in the west- African Sub sahara, it requires a befiiting infrastructure that will meet the standard and expectations of all and? sundry, hence the need for a forward movement to meet this aspiration of the present day government.”
According to him, initiated the provision of one skills acquisition centre and a 40 units housing project for each of the nine states of the region, speedy completion of the East West Road and construction of coastal road that would link the States with Lagos, among others projects.
Harping that President was in a hurry to develop the region, Orubebe pointed out that if not properly developed, Nigerians might never forgive this administration. ‘We cannot have a son in office and after 2015 we will still be talking about who to develop the Niger Delta. People will not forgive us. We have to start now doing the right thing to ensure that the needed development is brought to Niger Delta’
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