NDDC urged to dismantle bureaucratic red tape

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A political science professor has urged the NDDC to dismantle bureaucratic red tape, prioritise staff welfare, and ensure value for money in its interventi Read More:…

A professor of Political Science, Sylvester Odion Akhaine, has urged the Niger Delta Development Commission to dismantle bureaucratic red tape, prioritise staff welfare, and ensure value for money in regional interventions.

Akhaine gave the charge on Thursday while delivering the keynote address at the NDDC Annual Masterclass on Corporate Service Excellence, themed ‘Beyond Service Delivery: Institutional Accountability, Stakeholder Satisfaction and Sustainable Development Outcomes in NDDC’.

The scholar lamented that government offices no longer acknowledge citizens’ correspondence, contrasting the trend with past civil service standards.

“The Nigerian civil service is dying,” Akhaine declared. “In those days, whether the government would answer your prayer in the letter or not, the first thing they did was to acknowledge your letter. Today, you can write 20 letters and get no single acknowledgement. Our personnel in the NDDC must understand how important this is; we must tame red tape and not create artificial boundaries in administration.”

The keynote speaker noted that despite the Niger Delta accounting for over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s national income and more than 87 per cent of export proceeds, the region continues to suffer a severe development deficit, high inequality, and lack of basic amenities such as potable water and motorable roads like the East-West Road to Calabar.

He stressed that institutional accountability must go beyond physical structures to encompass financial discipline, fidelity to expenditure targets without misappropriation, and collective responsibility.

“For institutional accountability, the buck stops with all the actors within the institution, not just the CEO or the Managing Director,” he said. “A man who has not eaten does not even understand the meaning of freedom. The well-being of the workforce is vital if we want to achieve high productivity and continuity.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the NDDC Executive Director, Corporate…

“Our…

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