By Jack Kalio

Despite the internal wrangling generated by the recent dissolution of its board by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), an interventionist agency set up to handle development issues in the oil producing areas of Nigeria, is still up and kicking. Recently, the agency has been on the road cutting tapes to declare most of its projects fit for use.

*Oil-impacted Ikeinghenbiri creek

A few days ago, it was the turn of Akwa Ibom State to host the commission when its managing director, Bassey Dan-Abia, led board members and management team to commission the 522-bed hostel built to accommodate students of the University of Uyo. Described as “state-of-the-art” by those present, the hostel, built for medical students, is said to be very significant as it would spur the state to rise to the challenges facing the medical sector where doctors are in short supply.

At the occasion, the state deputy governor, Moses, Ekpo, who represented Governor Udom Emmanuel in an inauguration speech, said the hostel would increase the capacity of the teaching hospital to train more doctors in a very conducive environment. “This will improve the provision of health services to the people. We are grateful to the NDDC for helping us touch the lives of people in the state. I am confident that the commission will continue to meet the expectations of the people,” he said.

Dan-Abia said that despite the funding challenges faced by the Commission, it was determined to complete all on-going projects as directed by the Federal Government. He disclosed  that out of the 19 student hostels being built by the NDDC across the Niger Delta region, only one was completed when the current board was inaugurated on December 16, 2013.

He explained: “Since we came in, four more hostels have been commissioned and four others are ready. We have commissioned similar hostels at the Imo State University, Federal University of Science and Technology, Owerri, University of Benin and the Delta State University, Abraka.”

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Professor Comfort Ekpo, described the project which has facilities such    as a 250 KVA power generator, perimeter fence and a newly asphalted access road, as the most laudable in the university especially, as accommodation for the medical students remains one of the major considerations for admitting more students. She noted that the commission had in the past donated five transformers as well as constructing internal roads with solar-powered street lights for the school.

The Commission also commissioned was the Ikot Akan-Ibekwe Akpan-Nya Road in Ikot-Abasi/Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of the state. In Abia State, the government agreed to partner with the Commission for more development.  Governor Okezie Ikpeazu stressed that the NDDC remained a catalyst for the development of the Niger Delta region.

Former chairman of the commission, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, who was in the entourage, said the agency had completed and commissioned six university hostel projects, including the 630 bed-space ultra-modern hostel for the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia State, and awarded 1,021 overseas scholarships for master’s and Ph.D programmes in engineering and sciences. He however attributed the slow pace of completion of the commission’s projects to funding challenges, noting that over N800 billion of funds due to the interventionist agency had been withheld over the years; adding that N45 billion accruing from the ecological funds was also outstanding.

It was revealed that NDDC, since inception, has been getting only 10 per cent instead of the statutory 15 per cent funding from the Federal Government, as per funds accruing to the Federation Account. Appeal was made to the governors of the states covered by the NDDC to ensure that the federal government does the right thing by adequately funding the Commission while also mandating the oil companies to play their statutory part.

It was leant that NDDC under the present leadership, inherited about 7,000 projects and a financial liability in excess of one trillion naira, including Interim Payment Certificates that were not paid. In less than two years, Dan-Abia is said to have guided the team into recording some remarkable achievements in the completion of projects and the execution of development programmes despite the funding challenge.

Based on the Act establishing it, NDDC has as its cardinal duties: to conceive, plan and implement, in accordance with set rules and regulations, projects and programmes for the sustainable development of tie Niger-Delta area in the field of transportation including roads, jetties and waterways, health, education, employment, industrialization, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications.

It is equally tasked to cause the Niger-Delta area to be surveyed in order to ascertain measures which are necessary to promote its physical and socio- economic development, and prepare master plans and schemes designed to promote the physical development of the Niger-Delta area and the estimates of the costs of implementing such master plans and schemes.

Others include;  implementation of all the measures approved for the development of the Niger- Delta area by the Federal Government and the member States of the Commission; identify factors inhibiting the development of the Niger-Delta area and assist the member States in the formulation and implementation of policies to ensure sound and efficient management of the resources of the Niger-Delta area.

While commissioning the 630 bed-space ultra-modern hostel built by   NDDC for the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, the governor said the hostel would help ease the over-crowding of existing hostels in the university while increasing the students’ access to decent accommodation. He said the 630 students that would reside in the new hostel should count themselves lucky because it would guarantee their safety, especially at a time when security was becoming a major problem in university communities.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Dominic Okpara, said that the handover of the hostel could not have come at a better time as the university was facing serious accommodation challenge. “This will certainly reduce the pressure we are having in the area of providing accommodation for our students. I commend the NDDC for coming to the aid of the university by building and furnishing this hall of residence. This gesture will help to boost the academic performance of our students,” he stated.

Governor Ikpeazu also disclosed that he was aware of the funding challenges facing the NDDC however anticipated that the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would remove the bottlenecks hampering the proper funding of the commission. “Every kobo belonging to the NDDC that is withheld is a punishment for the people of the Niger Delta and not the commission,” the governor stated.

It is believed that if the Niger Delta must continue to be peaceful so that oil companies can conduct their businesses, then adequate funding of the NDDC must not be overlooked. There is need to understand that besides being responsible for the resources that contributes more than 90 percent to the nation’s economy, no part of this country inhabited by Nigerians should be ignored. With what the Dan-Abia led-administration is currently doing, NDDC is slowly, very slowly, creating the desired impacts.