Nigeria Niger Delta Innovation for Sustainable Development

Niger Delta crisis is one of the issues confronting the government over the years in Nigeria. The Region significantly contributes to the development of the country through her oil-rich environment yet it remains underdeveloped. Quite a number of attempts have been taken by various succeeding government to address the Niger Delta issue through strategies such as the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Niger Delta Ministry but the region is still faced with challenges of underdevelopment. Most of these steps failed due to lack of community’s participation and involvement. It is strongly believed that adequate community involvement and participation in NDDC community developmental projects in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria would yield fruitful and meaningful people’s oriented result. For this, a qualitative research method was conducted on both the community and NDDC staff .The overall findings revealed that the NDDC has woefully failed to implement the indigenous innovative development strategy in the Niger Delta, particularly in the rural areas. Additionally, the finding revealed the absence of adequate consultation with host communities in developing the region. Therefore, the study recommends innovative indigenous approach, an involvement of host communities in the planning of pre and post-implementation process of development project.

Keywords: Development Sustainability, Indigenous, Consultation, Niger Delta, Innovation and NDDC.