President Mohammadu Buhari has been called upon to appoint an indigene of Ondo oil producing community as the next Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The call was made by O’odua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), a coalition of 35 Pan-Yoruba groups. ONAC in a statement signed by Sanyaolu Adigun and Olu Suleiman said it was the turn of the oil producing communities in Ondo State to produce the next Managing Director of the NDDC, the oil development commission set up in the year 2000 to meet the peculiar needs of the oil producing communities. It expressed support for the position of Ilaje Parapo Forum that the time has come for the oil producing communities in Ondo State to produce the NDDC Managing Director.

ONAC quoted section 12 (c) of the act establishing the NDDC: “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of the Oil producing areas staring with member states of the Commission wit h the highest production of oil and shall rotate among member states in order of production.” It noted that “this clause has been only to the advantage of the other oil producing communities except the Ilaje people.”

The coalition maintained that out of the nine oil producing states, Ondo is the most cheated since an indigene of the state has not produced the MD of the commission contrary to section 12 of the NDDC Act which stipulated that the position of the MD and the two other Executive Directors should be rotated among all the oil producing states.

The group urged President Buhari to appoint a technocrat from Ilaje community who is honest, tested and can translate the change dream into reality among the oil producing communities.

According to ONAC, “Ilaje people and their Itsekiri cousins were the only oil producing communities that maintained the calm even as the wave of insurgency and kidnapping took the entire region by storm. Some communities took up arms, others disrupted oil production while some others resulted into killings, but Ilaje maintained the peace. We think they deserve compensation for the spirit of peaceful agitation that has been their devised method to make demands.

“Ilaje land is the least developed among the oil producing communities, yet they have persevered for more than 15 years. The Ilaje as the next MD will take the whole oil producing region as a new axis of development that will inspire the indigenous communities and the country as a whole.”

The coalition stated “Ondo produces about 8.5 percent of Nigerian total oil production far more than four other states of the nine states. All the other states have produced either the MD of the Executive Directors. Ondo State was singled out for persecution by the successive regimes. This came to the height of ignominy during the last administration. We think the right thing to do is to correct this anomaly.”

It added that “Ilaje is the biggest local governments in the oil producing communities. The LG was the only oil producing community that recorded the highest number of votes for Gen. Buhari in the last election.”

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