 The president of Ijur National Congress is Benjamin Okaba. He has expressed misgivings about the declaration of President Mohammad Buhari that funds looted at the Niger Delta Development Commission will be recovered. The president also said those found culpable in the forensic audit reports shall be punished. Buhari also made the declaration in his address in Abuja at the federal opening of the NDDC Prototype Hostel at the University of Uyawakwaibom State on Thursday. But Okaba described the president's vow as mere rhetoric stressing that there was nothing exciting about it as Buhari had made similar promises before. Well joining us live is High Chief Nengi James, he is the second National Vice President of Ijur National Congress, Incorporated Worldwide and Coordinator of the Association of Rural Chiefs for Peace and Development. Thank you very much for joining us. Yeah thank you very much. Well the issue of the NDDC has become a resounding issue, a problem that on every day news cycle you get to make reference to. How do we even begin to solve the issue of the NDDC being that it seems to be a hydroheaded monster? Yes it's very funny that Mr President is playing pranks with the NDDC issue. So tell me let me from you, the NDDC is not something that need to be discussed with in the political arena, it's purely something that ought to have helped to reduce the tension and assist the developmental activities in the remote and neglected and marginalized environments of the River Rhine Coastal people in Nigeria Delta. Mostly the oil producing area in Nigeria states, in addition what the Wilings Commission stated that that environment should be seen as a special area of development. That is what the NDDC is to Let's talk about the audits that the president has promised and this is also something that we keep hearing all the time. My biggest question is not that the needs to be in place, however, it's a tough measure. Yeah I think we lost connection for a bit but I'm going to the audits issue. The president has promised over and over that there will be an audit and of course he's talking about the fact that it would be followed up but we do not see that in reality. My first question is where is Professor Ponde after the drama that ensued during that hearing everything had gone into radio silence. Why is the your group not advocating and pushing that that issue be revisited again? Yeah, I have earlier informed you that the issue is because of political jamboree. Okay. Mr. President is within a job national Congress in Gila and I have his response handy. Professor Benjamin Okaban led the thing and in the issue of the NDDC we raised it and Mr. President promised that he's immediately at the leader of the National Delta Ministry to report he will shortly upgrade the NDDC but submitted from you that he really reports it's a political well-motivated that report should have been submitted to Mr. President. They submitted to the Attorney General. The Attorney General works is to probe you of the audit report. That audit report and go back to the Attorney General. That is the first issue of which for the year the Niger Delta area has never benefited from any development. It shows that. I'm sorry to come in I'm sorry let me come in there as much as I understand what you're saying and where you're going with this. It's pretty easy to point fingers at the federal government and say this there's a lot of politicking of cost there's a lot of politicking in the NDDC but then the NDDC has also had people from the Niger Delta headed and these people are supposedly there to help grow the Niger Delta develop the Niger Delta but that has not been the case. So can we really say that people are trampling on the NDDC and not letting it achieve its goals? Can we also not say that the members of the people who are from the Niger Delta representing the Niger Delta on those boards and also leading the NDDC are part of the problem? Yes, I agree with you. That is why I also and every most of us support this audit report. Whether it's our father, whether it's our uncle, whether it's our wife, any of them that is corrupt and shunned wanting by the report should be handled accordingly. As I'm talking, I support it but then should not stampede the development of the area. Madam, let me tell you that the Ministry of Ministerial Affairs and disaster management is going on in the north. The case is going on. Why is the Niger Delta home again not corrupt? Is not the Ministry, is those ministries not corrupt? We agree our people are corrupt. That should not stop the NDDC going. Nigeria is fantastic and not corrupt. But it is still ruling Nigeria. Why did the NDDC factory be offered to others to rule? So that should not be a yardstick. The issue is has to do with development. A truth is a truth. Let us go through the truth. Let us know that mine is the development of the Niger Delta. If our people are corrupt, we are not saying that we should not support them, but that should not deny them. So use this as a political giving or a political proposition, a political reunion. Okay. Quickly, before I let you go, I remember that recently one of the chiefs from the Niger Delta chief clack spoke about the issue of resource control. And this also one where the other ties to the issue of the NDDC. Why do you stand on this issue of resource control? Because we keep hearing about it, but when it comes down to it, the Niger Delta and the oil that is beneath it is always the subject of the conversation on resource control. Yes. We cannot run away from resource control for people. And other things that are in Nigeria grown by the people. What stops the Niger Delta people who need their resources? That is non-negotiable. Even if we are oppressed for 100 years, one day there is going to be a migration. People that want the resource, if we don't want the resources, why did Nigeria agree to give us least of 13% constituted in the constitution? What Mr. Basenjo is saying is only saying because he compensated his own plan in the days of his military service in your environment. You want not to negotiate this oppressive tendency in other areas that we compare the federalism that is oil so that we can also get our resources on our own. I ask Baushi, we ask, we want all of us to compete with our product, to be generous for what? To manage our resources and let the two federalism, two physical federalism, we are putting a nation where we will all pay commodity. And so going forward, finally, going forward with the body language of the federal government, the Mr. President, and all that's been going on. Do you see this coming to fruition anytime soon? Don't forget, this is 2022. The next year is the election year, so the campaigns begin now. How are you now pivoting to make sure that happens? Nothing matters. We tell most of the people and they will believe in a game because we never believe that others will tell us lies. Well, thank you. I want to say thank you, a high chief, Nengi James, for speaking with us. We appreciate it.