By Sunny Ikhioya

FROM what we have gleaned from the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Act, the buck of responsibility for the successful outcome of the commission rests with the President and no other person. We have seen attempts to place the blame where it does not belong.

Does the Act have provision for an interim board? Does it specify that it should be subordinated to the Minister, Niger Delta Affairs? Does it allow the board or management to remain in place, in the midst of accusations of corruption pervading the whole place? In his book The 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene made the following assertions:

“What limits individuals, as well as nations, is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are…As we grow older, we become rooted into the past. Habit takes over…repetition replaces creativity.” That has been the story of the NDDC since inception 20 years ago; no government has deemed it fit to address the dreams of the founders of this project.

Whether it is ineptitude on the part of leadership or a deliberate arrangement to put the Niger Delta in perpetual misery,  one cannot tell, but, definitely,  from what we have seen so far, the project is a failure.

Rather than see it as a project that will thrust the oil rich Niger Delta region, into a region free from ecological disasters, clean and potable water, constant electricity supply, qualitative education, urban city creations, inter-network of roads and transport system and quality employment for its youth. The commission has become an assemblage of rent seekers, buccaneers and carpetbaggers and the likes.

People who care only for themselves and don’t care about the people only succeed in pushing youths into such illegal activities like pipelines vandalisation,  illegal refineries, kidnapping, militancy and more, quite the opposite of what the commission set out to achieve in the first place. People will say that the Niger Delta people are passive or the leaders have sold out for personal interests, but who do you blame for this?

It must be noted that the Act setting up the NDDC has good intentions for the region, but successive governments have deliberately put obstacles on the way, so that nothing reasonable can be achieved in the region and it has continued until Godswill Akpabio and his interim team took over. For us to properly identify the cause of all these brouhaha, we must look into the Act setting up the commission.

The truth is that everything is documented in the Act for a hitch-free administration, but the reality on ground is different. For example, Part 3 10(11) states that: “There is hereby established for the commission, a Niger Delta Development Advisory committee (in this Act, referred to as ‘The Advisory Committee’), which shall consist of (a) the governors of the number of states of the commission and (b) two other persons as may be determined from time to time, by the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces

“(2) The Advisory committee shall be charged with the responsibility of advising the board and monitoring activities of the commission, with a view to achieving the objective of the commission, (3) the advisory committee may make rules regulating its own  proceedings”. You may want to ask about the position of the advisory committee in the midst of the rot that is going on in that place.

There is also in Part VI- miscellaneous 21, the following: “There is hereby established for the commission, a monitoring committee which shall consist of such numbers of persons as the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, may deem fit to appoint from the public or civil service of the federation

“(2) The monitoring committee shall (a) monitor the management of the funds of the commission  and implementation of the project of the commission and (b) have access to the books of account and other records of the commission at all times and submit periodical reports to the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed forces”. Section 22: (1) also says:

“Subject to the provisions of this Act, the President,  Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces may give to the commission directives of a general nature or relating generally to matters of policy, with regard to the performance by the commission of its functions and it shall be the duty of the commission to comply with the directives.”

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Finally, there is a part II sub 6(3), which states that: “The commission shall be subject to the directive, control or supervision in the performance of this function under this Act by the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of the Federal republic of Nigeria.” You will notice that there is no room for an Interim Management Committee here.

There is the President, the board, advisory committee and monitoring committee, each with its own function spelt out. There is also no room for the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. If these ones have no roles in the NDDC, you may want to ask why the President has continued to retain the illegality of their appointments?

One is, therefore, of the conclusion that the failure of the NDDC is the direct consequence of the President’s abdication of his supervisory role on the commission.

And, if they do show interest from the Presidency, the kind of personalities that they appoint to the board are the types that negate the goal of the commission. Why there has not been a single conviction of corrupt officials of the NDDC since it was set up beats one’s imagination.

With all the noise about the NDDC since its inception, not one official has been brought to book, despite the massive corruption going on there, which everyone seems to be aware of. Why then is the conspiracy of silence?

People will want to argue that the Niger Delta people are their own worst enemies, meaning their own undoing; but everyone knows that majority of the Niger Delta persons that have been put in charge of the NDDC have been dancing the tunes as played by people in Abuja.

It is a conspiracy of the elite in the Niger Delta region, together with elements from other geo-political zones, to ensure that the status quo is maintained. No consideration for the real people of the region.

That is why a project like the Ogoni clean-up exercise, endorsed by the United Nations is still lagging behind. We have vultures and traitors who are in competition with one another to sell their people for a plate of porridge; and that is also how it is with our politics. Why is the Presidency indifferent to the backwardness of the Niger Delta region?

It is time to make people accountable for their actions and it should begin with those heading the Interim Management Committee. We thought it will be different with President Buhari, but what we are seeing now is very repulsive. As it was with PDP, so it is now with the APC government, with corrupt personalities switching camps at will.

The Buhari government must set a different example; it is not too late for corrections to be made. The people of the oil-rich Niger Delta  area are suffering and their representatives in the NDDC board, as appointed by the President, are not representing the people’s interests. The people should be allowed to choose their leaders and also be allowed to monitor them.

It is not the fault of the people from the Niger Delta region, that the NDDC is failing them, it is the fault of the President, in his choice of appointments and inability to deal decisively with errant appointees.

The buck stops on the President’s desk. Abuja is far from Niger Delta and when they are up there, sharing money, contracts and positions, the people are not taken into consideration, so the grassroot is starved of real information. They have been deliberately starved of information concerning their own commonwealth, this should be properly addressed.

They cannot meet with their representatives, they cannot meet with the international oil companies operating in their region, they do not have a say on how the oil wells in their lands are shared and the returns on their investment of their lands.

The President must come to the aid of the Niger Delta people by instituting a transparent governing structure for the NDDC. It is his responsibility to do so and that is what the Act expects from him.

There should be a total clean up of the augean stable, and replace the current team with a very sound technocrat based board, with proper monitoring indices to gauge their performance. This President must leave that legacy behind.

Ikhioya wrote via www.southsouthecho.com

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