Renewed tension is mounting in the Niger Delta region as the area awaits the submission of the report of the forensic audit into the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had promised that the report of the forensic audit, which had stalled the inauguration of the Commission’s board since 2019, would be presented to President Buhari, unfailingly, on July 31.
There are strong indications that the much-awaited board of the NDDC will be constituted in August 2021 by Mr. President.
Akpabio, had in the wake of the agitations by long-suffering citizens, said the forensic audit report would be ready by July to enable President Buhari to inaugurate the substantive board and management to mount the saddle in the commission.
“I am very certain that come the end of July, the final result (of the forensic audit) will be given to Mr. President for final implementation,” Akpabio had told State House journalists, on June 22, 2021, shortly after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
Consequently, fresh tension enveloped the region last week, a few days to the July 31 deadline given by Akpabio.
There were palpable fears of likely consequences of the failure of the minister to meet the deadline.
It is about eight months now since President Buhari appointed a sole administrator to manage the affairs of the NDDC, after sacking the Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei-led Interim Management Committee of the Commission.
The appointment of the former Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Effiong Akwah, an integral part of Pondei’s regime, as sole administrator, has since sparked an avalanche of criticisms across the length and breadth of the Niger Delta region.
The critics had based their arguments on the provisions of the Act that sets up the NDDC, which has no place for a sole administrator or anything like interim committee.
Though the bulk of the critics and the major beneficiaries of NDDC establishment, the Ijaws, are of the opinion that on no account should the President by the lobby of Senator Akpabio, appoint an Oron man from Akwa Ibom State as the sole administrator of the Commission, some groups gave their nods for the decision.
Many coalitions of Ijaw groups have also argued that the appointment of Akwah was not only against the Act Establishing the NDDC, but a complete aberration.
The appointment, they argued, was a gross violation of sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11 of the extant Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment) Act, 2000, which provides for the statutory structures of the NDDC, including the Governing Board, Management Committee and Advisory Committee consisting of the Governors of the nine Niger Delta States.
Since the dissolution of the Barrister Bassey Dan-Abia led board, the Commission has witnessed so many leadership changes in a very short spell.
From Nsima Ekere who was replaced in January, 2019, to Nelson Brambaifa, Acting Managing Director (January, 2019 to August, 2019); and then Enyia Akwagaga, Acting Managing Director (August, 2019 to October, 2019), the list is a fairly long one. Akwagaga was followed by Joi Nunieh, as Acting Managing Director (October, 2019 to February, 2020); Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Managing Director (February, 2020 to December, 2020); and now, Effiong Akwa, as Sole Administrator (December, 2020 till date).
The NDDC was established in 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as part of efforts to develop the Niger Delta region, owing to the cries of marginalisation and neglect of the oil-rich region.
The Niger Delta region is the economic livewire of the country, with the oil and gas industry, which is located in the Niger Delta states, contributing more than 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign earnings.
“The sorry situation of the NDDC under different interim arrangements had attracted national and international attention, hence the agitation for the constitution of a substantive Board as provided by the law establishing the Commission”
Yet, the people of these oil-bearing states have a massive infrastructure deficit, suffer from oil spills and other ecological disasters that are unremedied, and generally do not enjoy the expected benefits of being hosts to the oil and gas industry, with poverty and unemployment very high.
States captured by the mandate of NDDC in alphabetical order include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers States.
The NDDC Act states that the position of the Board Chairman shall rotate in an alphabetical order amongst the nine-member states.
The first chairman of the Board was Chief Onyema Ugochukwu from Abia State who was succeeded by late Ambassador Samuel Edem from Akwa Ibom State and thereafter by Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinyan (retd) from Bayelsa State.
Senator Victor Ndoma Egba (SAN) from Cross River State was the last to occupy the position of chairman from 2016 to 2019.
The sorry situation of the NDDC under different interim arrangements had attracted national and international attention, hence the agitation for the constitution of a substantive Board as provided by the law establishing the Commission.
President Buhari should urgently appoint and inaugurate the substantive Governing Board, Management Committee and Advisory Committee, as the statutory structures that can be accountable to the people in line with the enabling Act.
He should immediately inaugurate the NDDC board, vetted by the security agencies and confirmed by the Senate in 2019 in order to avert another crisis in the oil rich region.
The current tension and situation in the Niger Delta is a result of the avoidable and dangerous politics of certain actors who don’t care about the high poverty rate in the region that provides 90 per cent of the nation’s resources.
President Buhari should initiate a process of good faith and confidence with the Niger Delta people for their betterment and posterity.
The National Assembly should also make a representation to the President and prevail on him that the vacuum in the NDDC board has become a worrisome illegality and that it is time to inaugurate the board duly appointed by him.
