Why is Buhari Unusually Quiet on Promise to Inaugurate NDDC Board?

On June 24, 2021 President Muhammadu Buhari made an unequivocal commitment to inaugurate the Niger Delta Development Commission Board upon receipt of the Commission’s Forensic Audit report, which has been submitted to him siince September 2, 2021. Nseobong Okon-Ekong wonders why the President is silent on this promise

On June 24, 2021, when the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) led by Professor Benjamin Okaba visited President Buhari in Aso Rock he promised the nation that he will inaugurate the NDDC Board upon receipt of the forensic audit report of the Commission. That report has since been submitted to him since September 2, 2021 by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

In a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, the President said: “Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.”

More than five months after submission of the forensic audit report, President Buhari has been unusually quiet, and delaying his promise to inaugurate NDDC board after submission of forensic audit report. There is increasing tension in the Niger Delta region over the delay in inaugurating members of the board of the Commission.

Still on promises, on November 13, 2021, the Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN) met in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and in the communique issued after its meeting reminded President Muhammadu Buhari “to keep his promise and inaugurate a substantive board for NDDC following the submission of the forensic report, and in line with the law establishing the agency,” noting that the Niger Delta was in dire need of development which the absence of the board has so far stalled.

In the communique which was read by its President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, CPGNDEN also contended that the running of the NDDC by a Sole Administrator was contrary to the law establishing the Commission. Okaba who is also the President of Ijaw National Congress stated that “The general feeling is that the region has been auctioned off to one man to do with it as he pleases.”

Also at a protest march in November 2021, by the Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN) in Yenagoa, Professor Chris Akpotu, Secretary of CPGNDEN, and President-General of Isoko Development Union (IDU) restated that what Niger Deltans demand is an NDDC “substantive board that will ensure even and equitable distribution of the development programmes as far as the Niger Delta is concerned.”

Prince Biira, President, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), at the march, remarked that “Interim caretaker-ship of the NDDC is a symbol of corruption, it’s a symbol of misappropriation. The essence of that Commission (NDDC) is to develop the Niger Delta area.”

Another critical stakeholder, the umbrella body of the Ijaw nation, worldwide, Ijaw National Congress (INC) also cautioned in a statement issued on September 10, 2021 that “any further delay in the inauguration of the NDDC board is a clear betrayal of trust and display of State insensitivity on ljaw nation and Niger Delta region.”

Overall, it is in President Buhari’s best interest to keep good legacy by abiding to the law establishing NDDC. An Ijaw group, the Ijaw Interest Advocates (IIA), also known as Izanzan Intellectual Camp, in a statement signed by its leader, Arerebo Salaco Yerinmene Snr had earlier advised that “The Presidency and the President’s family should remember to keep good legacies even after office. The government’s flagrant disobedience of the laws guiding the establishment of an agency created to develop an impoverished region is unacceptable. We are again appealing to President Buhari to save the Niger Delta Development Commission by inaugurating the substantive board.”

In an article published in THISDAY on December 17, 2021, Godspower Tamunosusi, who resides in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital submitted that “For many people in the Niger Delta, the failure of the President to follow the NDDC Act and inaugurate the board is indicative of his disdain not only for the rule of law but for the Niger Delta people. Many people feel that the trumpeted forensic audit exercise which took over 2 years to be concluded was an invalid excuse used to capture the NDDC, fleece it of its huge monthly receipts, and run it aground so that it cannot be of benefit to the people of Niger Delta unlike the case of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) which is being funded properly and allowed to operate with a legal board and management in place in line with the NEDC Act.”

Tamunosusi therefore advised that “as the Buhari administration winds down to its last full year in office, which is 2022, he has so far established a legacy of illegality and disdain for the Niger Delta people in the manner he has handled the NDDC. He needs to rethink this very grievous act if he is to be remembered for good in the Niger Delta. Mr President should stop the illegalities and put in place the board of the NDDC now in line with the NDDC Act and for the benefit of the people of the nine constituent states.”

Also, the authentic and true representatives of the Niger Delta people such as Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN), Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Ijaw National Congress (INC), Isoko Development Union (IDU), Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people (MOSOP), Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities (TROMPCON), amongst others, have been consistent in their unceasing calls on President Buhari in the past two years, to abide by the law establishing NDDC and inaugurate the governing Board of the Commission.

On October 4, 2021 the South-south Governors Forum spoke again when they rose from an emergency meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital and joined in the call on President Buhari to comply with the law setting up NDDC and inaugurate the Board of the Commission which has, sadly, been arbitrarily run in the past two years by the illegal contraptions of interim management committees/sole administrator.

While receiving Governors of the constituent states that make-up NDDC in Aso Rock on October 17, 2019, President Buhari said that “I try to follow the Act setting up these institutions”

However the reverse has been the case. Since the inauguration of the Buhari Presidency on May 29, 2015, it has serially violated the law setting up NDDC by consistently choosing to administer the Commission through illegal interim managements and Sole Administrator contraptions that are alien to the law setting up NDDC. In the six and a half year tenure of President Buhari, NDDC has only been administered by a substantive Board for two years, between November 2016 and January 2019 when Senator Victor Ndom-Egba was Chairman while Nsima Ekere was the Managing Director.

Prior to Buhari’s coming to power in 2015, in the absence of a Board duly constituted in line with the NDDC Act, the most senior Civil servant in the NDDC took over as Managing Director in acting capacity for a brief period until a Board was constituted in line with the NDDC Act. The NDDC Act does not permit the appointment of any external persons from outside the Commission to act as Managing Director or Sole Administrator without compliance with the Act which requires nomination by the President and Confirmation by the Senate. This is the same requirement for Ministers of the Federal Republic. The Law does not permit for anyone to be appointed as Acting Minister in any Ministry. If there is no Minister in a Ministry, the most senior civil servant – i.e. the Permanent Secretary holds forth until a Minister is appointed by the President and duly confirmed by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The orderly succession in NDDC was only breached in 2015 by the Buhari Administration when it dissolved the Bassey Henshaw led Board with Dan Abia as Managing Director, and appointed Ibim Semenitari as Sole Administrator, a position she held illegally for over one year. The illegality in NDDC continued in January 2019 when President Buhari dissoved the two-year old Victor Ndoma-Egba led Board and replaced the Board with an Interim Management team led by Professor Nelson Brambaifa. It was not until August of 2019 that the Buhari Presidency ended the illegal Brambaifa interim management team and then, in accordance with the law establishing NDDC forwarded the list of nominees for a 16-member Board to the Senate for confirmation, and then dutifully appointed the most senior civil servant at that time in NDDC, Mrs. Akwaghagha Enyia, as Acting Managing Director pending the Senate confirmation of the President’s nominees as NDDC Board members, which list he forwarded to the Senate on October 18, 2019.

But unfortunately again President Buhari relapsed to its recourse to illegality in administering NDDC, because as the Senate dutifully screened and confirmed the nominees of President Buhari as Board and Management of NDDC on November 5, 2019, this same government has since embarked on another spree of interim managements/Sole Administrator contraptions, while the Board confirmed by the Senate has been on hold since November 2019.

Since October 2019 this government has appointed two illegal interim management teams led by Joi Nunieh and Professor Keme Pondei, respectively, and presently the Commission is illegally led by an Interim Administrator, Effiong Akwa.

Curiously, whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act thereby ensuring proper Corporate Governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its Constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act even after President Buhari had appointed a Board for the NDDC which was duly confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on November 5, 2019, but was asked to be on standby for inauguration after the forensic audit.

The President should do well to heed the call of Niger Delta leaders, governors, youths, women, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders, comply with the law setting up NDDC, and also fulfill his own promise of June 24, 2021, and inaugurate the board to manage the Commission for the benefit of the people of the nine Niger Delta states.