By Braeyi Ekiye

AT long last, the governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been inaugurated. It is supposedly to take off with gusto, on a clean slate, and with a zero tolerance stance, bearing in mind the monumental corruption cases that have bedeviled the agency since its inception in 2000 and stalled its developmental mandate.

Unfortunately, the NDDC has been used as a cash-cow for easy disbursement of staggering funds for political patronage and to favour both federal and state officials and contractors over the years. A former administrator and then Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, told a bewildered press at the Commission’s Board room not too long ago that: “I think the people were treating the place (NDDC) as an ATM, where you just walk in there to go and pluck money and go away. I don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency.”

In fact, corruption is a major reason for the Commission’s inability to address its mandate of addressing the socio-economic and infrastructural deficits in the oil-rich Niger Delta. But then, like past administrators of the agency, the new chairman of the governing board, Lauretta Onochie, has stated categorically that the era of this dreaded cankerworm, corruption, is over.

Hear her: “The days of portfolio contractors and contract splitting are over in the Niger Delta Development Commission. The era of corrupt practices in the commission had come to an end.” She spoke just as Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, faulted the N60 billion budget projected for security and N4 billion for cleaning of drains in the nine states that make up the NDDC. The sums are part of the commission’s N500 billion budget projection for this year. 

Onochie, a former Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, further said during a dinner organised by the Buhari Support Organisation that, “only qualified contractors would henceforth handle the commission’s projects”. In her words: “We are not only going to be looking at the forensic audit as a board, but we are going to do things differently. In the past, it (NDDC) became a cash-cow for the elites in the Niger Delta and beyond. It is not the same. We will stand with our people because our youth will benefit greatly.”

The commission’s new managing director, Samuel Ogbuku, said that the people of the region would experience “something new” in the coming weeks and months. Re-echoing Onochie’s vow to end portfolio contractors, Ogbuku promised that the new board and management would focus on connecting states in the Niger Delta, which Rivers State Governor, Wike, had challenged the NDDC to do earlier.

A move, he said, would open up unprecedented socio-economic and infrastructural development in the region. Now, what exactly was the NDDC set to achieve in the Niger Delta as an interventionist development agency? The mandate, among other objectives, includes the training and education of the youths of the Niger Delta in order to curb hostilities and militancy, while developing key infrastructure to promote diversification and productivity. 

The background to the creation of the NDDC is well known. Suffice it to say, however, that its creation was largely a response to the demands of Niger Deltans for greater autonomy and control of the area’s rich petroleum resources and its financial proceeds. Key among their grievances is the continued extreme environmental degradation as a result of pollution from oil exploration and exploitation activities since the 1950s.

These agitations for equity and justice, for autonomy and resource control, prompted the Federal Government to reconsider the Derivation Principle in the country’s revenue allocation. A pledge of three per cent was therefore dangled before the region, and later, a 13 per cent pledge, as a means of ameliorating the ecological damages to the area, the health hazards that faced the people, as well as the socio-economic and infrastructural development of the Niger Delta. 

Though the NDDC’s mandate and operations cover all areas of human endeavour as well as environmental development geared toward rapid transformation of the region, governments have not seen fit to devise a Marshall Plan for the holistic development of the oil-rich area as they did for Abuja, the Federal Capital City, now with such staggering transformation in socio-economic and infrastructural architecture within such a short period of time from when it was established.

Just 46 years later, Abuja is now a city to behold. And development in all facets is still going on in a dedicated and aggressive mode. On the other hand, even the house budgetary allocations to the commission from both the Federal Government and development partners, including International Oil Corporation, IOCs, are unfortunately frittered away, either through inflated and, in some cases, ghost contracts, political patronage, the execution of substandard contracts, or the time-honoured ten to twenty percent cuts arising from such contract awards. 

These actions have, therefore, hampered the smooth and effective development of the area. This is the reason the region has continued to experience stunted growth; a stagnation of the well-intended mandate of the NDDC, and the rapid transformation of the Niger Delta. This is evident in the plethora of abandoned and poorly executed projects scattered across the nine oil producing areas of the region.

A cursory look and an in-depth analysis of the performance bond of the NDDC since its establishment, leave much to be desired. The unpardonable very poor performance bond of the agency is also akin to that of other federal developmental agencies in the region, including the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. My candid opinion, based on my observations on the ground, is that, very little money has been expended for actual development purposes from the federal coffers and development partners in the region. 

According to Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, statistics, over N10 trillion has so far been received by oil producing states from 1999 up until date, as part of derivation funds accruing to these states and interventionist development agencies. This is in addition to the N43 billion refunds for 13 per cent oil derivation to states and SURE-P from the Federation Account in the past two years, 2021 to 2022.

The states that benefited from the refunds dating back from 1999 to 2021 include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers. There is, therefore, no excuse, whatsoever, for the continued stunted socio-economic and infrastructural development status of the region, going by the huge financial and material resources that have been invested in these development agencies, and state governments in the Niger Delta. From the foregoing, the region urgently needs clear thinkers, generational in every sense of the word, and managers who are focused, with penetrating vision and selflessness, in turning around the region’s crass development deficit.

In addition to the lack of selfless leaders, it is my considered opinion that to achieve the much desired accelerated development with the humongous financial budgetary allocations, still flowing into these agencies and state governments in the region, there is the need to seriously and urgently interrogate the law as amended in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution relating to the Derivation Principle in revenue allocation. This law has not helped matters in the judicious use of funds accruing to those bodies or the transparent and effective execution of projects in the region.

The law as amended in the 1999 Constitution, in Section 162, Sub-section 2, states that 13 per cent should be given to the “host communities”. There is no law in Nigeria that states that the fund should be given to and managed by a state governor or a local government chairman. 

governors. It is an axiom that our leaders, over time, have disappointed the region and her earnest expectations for rapid socio-economic and infrastructural development, notwithstanding the recent outstanding performances in the area of road and housing infrastructures and other people-oriented projects across the states.

Of particular note is Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, whose infrastructural and developmental strides are stunning, to say the least. Senator Douye Diri, the Miracle Governor of Bayelsa State, must also be mentioned for his leadership and political will in making a difference in the overall development of Bayelsa State in such a short period of time.

Also of note is the development strides currently being experienced in Akwa-Ibom State, the Delta, and, lately, Edo. However, while appreciating this new thrust of developmental activities, the people of the region still want more coordinated regional development, in terms of projects and policies that would more effectively harness the region’s resources for the good of all and for the much-needed commercial and industrial growth that would free them from the biting poverty and lack in the midst of plenty.

It is time, therefore, for the region and her people to be more circumspect and deeply concerned about who they saddle with the responsibility of managing the affairs of state and the various interventionist agencies, in their desire to achieve rapid transformation of the Niger Delta, both in human capital as well as massive infrastructural development.

This is where the newly inaugurated NDDC Board comes in. The Board, comprised Niger Delta sons and daughters chosen by the Buhari administration, should prioritize turning around this sad commentary and the region’s poor overall development performance.

They should prove, by words and action, that they mean business and are committed to the shared values of probity and accountability, and a performance bond that Nigerians and the international community will give credence to in the coming months and years. 

One challenge before the Board in this regard is Governor Nyesom Wike’s allegation that some politicians were already mounting pressure on the National Assembly to pass the NDDC budget ahead of the general elections. The import of this is the fear of using the agency as a cash cow or ATM prior to and during the general elections in February 2023.

Wike said that a critical look at some of the provisions and items, especially the four billion naira to clean drains and the sixty billion naira for security as part of the NDDC’s five hundred billion naira budget presentation, could well be passed as a fraudulent document.

Wike questioned why a development agency would spend money on public drains when it is supposed to be addressing regional strategic development issues and long-term public-oriented regional projects.

This begs an answer: Can we trust this new board to do what is right and proper and in good conscience by restoring the stolen mandate of the NDDC and piloting the region to the desired destiny of a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta region and facilitating the rapid and sustainable development of the oil-rich Niger Delta?

Ekiye, Publisher, EnvironmentWatch, wrote from Yenagoa.