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….Advocates redesign of East-West road

A former member of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and contender for the Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency seat in 2019, Dr Emmanuel Athanasius Akpanobong, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that more funds are released by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, for effective performance and service delivery for the people of the region.

Dr Akpanobong stated this in an exclusive interview with members of the Niger Delta Network, in Uyo, recently.

The renowned Medical Doctor, who doubles as Director General of the Centre for Leadership Development and Conflict Resolution as well as a forerunner of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) also x-rayed critical issues affecting the Niger Delta region.

The PANDEF chieftain also called for the redesign of the East-West road to take care of geological deficiencies arising from the low topography of the area and the rising level of the water as witnessed during the recent flood disaster in parts of the region.

Akpanobong said “The creation of OMPADEC and subsequently the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, were geared towards developing the place as an interventionist arrangement”, adding that this development stimulated a lot of interest from stakeholders”.

He, however, lamented poor budgetary allocation and performance, saying it would have been much better if funds are made available.

“Injecting non-indigenes within the sector together with indigenes of the region has played some roles in slowing down certain activities, especially in the tracking of funding. While this goes on, I have been able to penetrate; to see that most times, we don’t make a lot of effort to see if a large budgetary provision can be made to the Niger Delta Development Commission, and in most cases, something reasonable is put there. Reasonable in the eyes of the federal government because there are competing demands.

“For example, fifty billion could be sent to Niger Delta Development Commission, but the whole year will pass and not up to 40 per cent of that amount is released.

“I know in government, budget is a mere estimate based on the expectation that much will come in and they will do this but, I have seen that, while other sectors that competed for allocation received higher percentages if not 100 per cent, areas that are dear to the federal government: security, defence and similar things may even received more than 10 per cent because supplementary appropriation can be made to meet up the demands, while this one is there.”

Akpanobong expressed dismay that even up to the Accountant-General’s Office that the players in the Niger Delta Development Commission may have to spend a lot of money to lobby for the release of funds.

‘So, when you look at all these mixes, you find that perhaps there was a good intention and indeed there is a good intention, but the actual implementation is not so much there”. He stated.

“I ask you to do certain things, more than 70 per cent of these contractors suffer from what I’m just saying now. It is easier to summarize to the people that ‘look, this contractor collected money and ran away’, but, when I get into the details, I have seen that, for a very long time, nobody is given 30 per cent to go and start.

“They encourage you to start but, how do you start? If you’re a struggling person, you have to borrow”.

On the award of contracts by the NDDC, the Medical Doctor stated that the contract is business, urging NDDC to set up objective criteria for the selection of contractors.

“If you say ‘companies must have registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, must have experience in doing that kind of a thing, and you lay it down for whoever qualifies! If you like, in the last paragraph, it must be given to an indigene of the Niger Delta. There is no crime about it. If you want it open to any Nigerian or even a foreigner that meets these conditions, he should be given it. That’s my stake in it.

He pointed out that poor contracts indicate a lack of supervision.

“Look at road construction; when they say poor performance, the first blame goes to the government, because every road design has details, in terms of thickness, in terms of width, in terms of what should be put and there is intermittent supervision from the Ministry to test.