It took many years of militantism for an intervention agency called Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), to be set up to deal with the intractable problem of the oil producing Niger Delta region. It took many more years of struggle, legal and extra-legal, for a new and well-founded intervention agency called Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to be put in place as a kind of fig leaf to cover the nakedness of the Niger Delta people.
When the Act that gave birth to the NDDC was put together by the Obasanjo Government the people of the Niger Delta Region gave President Olusegun Obasanjo a standing ovation in the belief that the region which had been thrown into the abyss of grief by a multiplicity of debilitating factors, man-made and nature-made, was about to have a new and refreshing lease of life.
The managers of the Commission reinforced the faith of the people by adopting as the Commission’s motto the spirit-lifting words ‘Determined to make a difference.’ But the various governments of the federation never walked their talk; they never paid the monies they were supposed to pay to the NDDC for the monumental development needs of the region. So, the Commission was only able to do small roads, small culverts, small bridges, small health centres as if its development philosophy was called miniaturisation. No one can name any significant, life-transforming project of gigantic size done by the NDDC in the region. I stand to be corrected.
The Commission has had its own share of critics who accuse its officials of corruption, misappropriation, inefficiency, misplacement of priorities and political partisanship. The truth is that while some of these accusations may be true, the choice of persons to run the Commission over the years has been less than thorough, less than meticulous. It seemed in some cases as if the decision makers just deliberately picked political hacks who are malleable from the streets, people who would do their bidding unquestionably.
That is why there has been a huge turnover in the managerial cadre of the Commission since 2000. That instability has also led to policy summersaults and frequent personnel changes. These have led to low performance by the Commission in dealing with the asphyxiating problems of the region such as environmental degradation, treacherous topography, destruction of flora and fauna, pollution of farmlands and rivers, gas flaring, air pollution, acid rain, damaged mangrove swamps.
The bare truth is that the amount of money invested in recovering the region from the many afflictions that confront it is hardly enough. So, it was a major surprise to learn, a few days ago, that the Federal Government owes the NDDC about two trillion naira.
It was the Managing Director of the Commission, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, that made that startling revelation when he was speaking to the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC in Abuja. He said that the money is the accumulation of the 15 per cent of the allocation of the nine oil producing States which have been due to the Commission since 2000 and has not been paid.
Section 14 subsection 2 (a) of the NDDC Act says that “There shall be paid and credited to the fund established pursuant to subsection 1 of this section (a) from the Federal Government the equivalent of 15 per cent of the total monthly statutory allocations due to member States of the Commission from the Federation Account this being the contribution of the Federal Government to the Commission.”
Another stunner. He also said that despite the passing of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 budgets of the Commission in April this year, they were yet to receive the funds. The budget papers for the three years were sitting in the offices of the National Assembly. The budgets were only passed when the new management of the Commission pushed for their passage. We have three weeks to the end of the budget year and the budgets passed have not yet been returned to the NDDC.
And yet another stunner. The Federal Government only gives whatever it likes to the Commission irrespective of what is in the budget, irrespective of what they are entitled to get. That means that the lofty dreams of the Commission are just specks in a distant horizon. They will be difficult if not impossible to achieve.
That means that the Federal Government is paying lip service to the development of the Niger Delta with its pageant of promises over the years; that means that the goose that lays the golden eggs can die of hunger while the geese that lay no eggs golden or silvery, can feed fat on the cake baked in the Niger Delta. That means that the Niger Delta people can continue to yelp like hungry puppies that have been deprived or denied of food while the baboons and high rollers are chopping nonstop.
I was at the commissioning of the NDDC Headquarters in Port Harcourt on March 11, 2021. It was there that I learnt that the Commission used to pay N300 million as rent a year for the office that it occupied on Aba -Port Harcourt Road. I thought that office was owned by the NDDC. It was there that I also learnt that the foundation for the office commissioned that day was laid in 1996 by OMPADEC.
That means that the building was completed 26 years after the foundation stone was laid. We were told there were legal issues that needed to be resolved but I am certain that if there was managerial spunk and the Federal Government’s desire to cut its losses by funding the headquarters building, it would have been completed two decades earlier. The Commission and the Federal Government would have enjoyed the blaze and dazzle of popularity and adulation from the Niger Delta people.
There are probably many uncompleted and or abandoned projects in the region. The East-West Road, which is a major artery that links the South-South and South-East regions with the South-West is one of them. Many Federal Government officials have made promises of completing the road but the road remains stagnant and motionless as a mannequin. All those promises resemble the promises made by most Nigerian Politicians before elections.
The politicians of the First Republic had a credible approach to election tomfoolery. They would pile sand on a given road as evidence that they want to tar it. After the election they pack the sand away. The road remains untouched until the next election. Sorry for the digression.
Coming nearer home, there is an NDDC comprehensive health centre in my village, Ikot Udo Ossiom in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
It is 19 years old now and remains uncompleted. I had to buy land and pay for the economic trees so that those who owned the land and economic trees would allow the contractor to build the health centre.
But the project was poorly conceived. They awarded a contract for the health centre without making room for borehole, generating set and even perimeter fencing and security post. In this age of rampant vandalism propelled by poverty you cannot even fix doors, windows and toilet facilities there without perimeter fencing and well-armed security personnel taking charge of the facility.
For all of these 19 years I have been pushing for the NDDC to complete the project which can benefit people in six surrounding villages to no avail. So, it is clear now that part of the reason why most of these projects initiated by the Commission remain uncompleted is money or more appropriately the lack of it. If President Bola Tinubu wants to earn the respect and support of the Niger Delta people, he should treat the region decently by paying to the NDDC what the Federal Government is owing the commission.
The reason that there is an outbreak of peace in the region is not because there are no more grievances. It is because the leaders of PANDEF and the opinion leaders in the region have persuaded the militant youths to uncock their guns and give peace a chance so that the region can grow.
Mr. President, please do the needful, show that you are a President who practices what he preaches, who walks his talk. The Niger Delta region is still the major producer of the county’s wealth in foreign exchange. We do not need any disruption of activities in the region and the only way to avoid such disruptions is to treat the region decently as the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The management of NDDC is between the rock and the hard place. It has 10 masters, the Federal Government and nine state governments which represent three political parties. PDP has five governors in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta and Edo while the APC rules Imo, Ondo and Cross River. The Labour Party is in charge of Abia State.
My unsolicited advice to the NDDC management is to ask it to walk the tightrope adroitly by managing its relations with these 10 governments skillfully. If it has a good relationship with the nine state governors, they can jointly talk to the Federal Government to pay the money that it is owing the NDDC.
They must understand that Niger Delta politics is an algorithm of complex calculations. It is not enough to feel that they were appointed by the Federal Government and therefore they have no business with the governors of the region. That would be a major mistake.
Also, the management must seek the support of PANDEF, a non-state actor that has been a major force in the affairs of the region. NDDC must work with the organisation to turn its dreams into reality for the benefit of the beleaguered region.
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