NDDC’s Project HOPE: Firm Launches Music Arts Project For Niger Delta Youths

An indigenous firm, Consiglories Limited, has announced that it is taking up some aspects of the Holistic Opportunities Programmes for Engagement project (Project HOPE) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), aimed at empowering Niger Delta youths with the launch of a Music and Arts Project (MAP).

The project HOPE, a youth empowerment programme, which was initiated by the NDDC managing director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, to provide training and opportunities across various sectors like agriculture, technology, and entrepreneurship, to youths in the Niger Delta region, has suffered delay two years after it was launched in 2023.

In 2024, during the launch of the second phase at the Rivers State Information and Communication Technology Centre, in Port Harcourt, Ogbuku announced that no fewer than 3.2 million Niger Delta youths have registered for the first phase of the project, which he said focused on creating a digital platform for data collection and analysis, and has established the parameters for effective programme implementation.

But two years after, with the youths exhausting their patience in waiting for the implementation of the project which is not forthcoming, they are instead threatening fire and brimstone.

LEADERSHIP observed that several moves by some aggrieved youths in different quarters to take to the streets and barricade the NDDC gate in protest had been foiled by stakeholders and some leaders.

However, following the agitations, the lead consultant for Project HOPE, Ambassador Blessing Fubara, as part of efforts to pacify some of the aggrieved Niger Delta youths over the delay of the project, launched the Music and Arts Project (MAP) for the youths.

Fubara, while addressing a press conference in Port Harcourt yesterday, said as an Indigenous corporate company, they have decided to move with some of its pet projects they can afford while waiting for the NDDC’s project HOPE if it will be a success or not.

He said: “I am the face of the project to the people and youths of the region, in as much as we all know that the MD/CEO of the NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku is the face of Project HOPE. But, I am the resource consultant that designed the model for implementation as directed by the Commission and the MD.

“Also, I am the face that had made all the commitments to the people of the region and the youths of the region about the cardinals and the hopeful of the Project HOPE which is supposed to be doing a proper implementation of the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda for the region.

“There is a strong need for me to speak and address concerns out there. The Project HOPE was launched in June 2023, and we are in February 2025.

“Yes, we understand that people will start asking questions because we started the product with the energy that reassured hope to the people of the region. We started the project with the energy that defines sincerity and purpose from the board.

“As an Indigenous company and, of course, Indigenous youth of the region, I have a fundamental responsibility and concern to, at this point, also answer some of the questions that are clouding to almost rain dirty in the region that we have already sustained hope and of course the hope of sustainable development from this administration.

“As the Resource Consultant of the project and the Creative Director of an entity duly registered in Nigeria, I have the responsibility for my Corporate Integrity and of course a responsibility to have told the people in regards to the NDDC project , Project HOPE.

“At this point, lots of questions are being asked, standards of our service and practice in line with our service, why we have launched implementation of the project HOPE severally, yet proper implementation is yet to be felt by the people.

“For whatever reason that we have stalled till this time without being able to implement as directed by the principal directors, this I don’t want to go into not because there is something I don’t want to say but because the little I know is only what I can stand for and that’s the reason why we are still here today.”