By Joseph Kingston
Calabar
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) yesterday in Calabar commenced a town hall meeting on impact assessment of projects and youth empowerment initiatives across the nine Niger Delta states.
The initiator and Special Adviser to the Chairman of NDDC Board on Youth matter, sports, women affairs and culture, Mr George Turner, said it was aimed getting feedback from the grassroots.
He said: “It is aimed at collating feedback, especially at the grassroots level on the impact assessment of our projects and youth empowerment initiatives, ‘’ he said.
According to him, it was wrong for them to sit in Port Harcourt and assume that the commission was doing well or not doing well.
“We want to know, how far we have gone in terms of projects; are we satisfied with empowerment packages initiated by the commission over the years. So, we really want to hear from the youths themselves.
“At the end of the tour, we are going to collate the information, analyse them and based on that, we will do a report on the way forward.”
He commended chairman of the board, Sen. Ewa Henshaw, for his “youth-friendly disposition.”
Speaking, chairman of NDDC board, Henshaw said his focus was purely on youth empowerment, development and wealth creation.
He regretted that today’s youths were made to go through hardship because of poor economic situation of the country.
He said: “We shall try to partner relevant stakeholders including sister MDAs and the private sector in other to achieve rapid development of the Niger Delta region. For me NDDC is created for intervention in critical sectors in the Niger Delta.”
The special adviser and his entourage later visited the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Kola Sodipo, as well as the headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS).