‘Buhari Should Inaugurate NDDC Board as He Did for NEDC’

President Muhammadu Buhari, on June 24, 2021, while receiving the leadership of Ijaw National Congress, promised to inaugurate the board of NDDC upon receipt of the Commission’s forensic audit report. But six months after receipt of the report on September 2, 2021, from Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio, the President is yet to fulfil his promise, abide by the law establishing NDDC, and hearken to the legitimate demands of the Niger Delta stakeholders, leading to agitations and heightened tension in the region.

In an interview on a national television magazine programme, ‘Journalists’ Hangout,’ monitored in Lagos, Babajide Otitoju, and Kolawole Johnson, Head, Directorate of Research and Strategy, of anti-corruption group, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative decry the delay and urge President Buhari to inaugurate the NDDC Board to guarantee equitable representation of the nine constituent states

NDDC drama, unending drama. In Nigeria it is the way we are, one day one drama. There was the elaborate public hearing in the National Assembly in June/July 2020, we saw it, one former acting Managing Director of NDDC passing out, all the drama, and it went. Now another crisis

We are not prepared to do anything about the corruption in NDDC. If we were prepared, by now we would have agreed to put a board in place just as the President (Buhari) had promised. By now a board would be in place. Why are we allowing Senator Akpabio to literally be running that place as if it belongs to him? He came up with the idea of interim management committee (IMC) that is not known to the Act setting up the NDDC. He came up with it and he got away with it. Later on he came up with the idea of a sole administrator. The sole administrator is from his state, he as Minister (Niger Delta affairs) is from the same Akwa Ibom state, the Presidential aide (Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari) on Niger Delta, Senator Ita Enang is also from Akwa Ibom. So other Niger Delta oil bearing communities and states are effectively shut out of the running of the place. He has refused to inaugurate a board. The President promised to get a board inaugurated. That promise has not been kept. So why are you surprised that we are hearing this kind of stories from NDDC? My problem is, the national assembly can investigate the NDDC a zillion times but what will happen? It will just be an impotent rage amounting to nothing at the end of the day because we still have, thank God the internet never sleeps, stories that emanated from the probe by the House of Representatives and by the Senate, which they conducted separately in June/July 2020. Those stories are still there with the recommendations to government which are still there. So, if the same national assembly or the same Senate that made those recommendations after probing them and establishing humongous cases of corruption have not been able to get the executive to implement even one of its recommendations, why are we sure that Senator Matthew Urhogide and others are not on a wild goose chase? That’s the way it looks. Somebody refusing bluntly to inaugurate a board, he is just there running the place alone

The fresh crisis in NDDC is also coming after the (forensic) audit report and fresh cases are coming up, so what are we talking about? These are people who paid monies to themselves during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, when they were doing nothing, yet they claimed they were supervising road projects and other projects during COVID-19 lockdown.

We allow impunity to run on two legs.

What is now the basis for the fight against corruption if the Federal Government departments/agencies like NDDC, severally have been found culpable and Mr. President is not ready to make some people pay for it as examples?

I don’t understand. I just don’t understand. The first thing to do is to implement the recommendations of the Senate probe of June/July 2020 (of NDDC Interim Management Committee). I looked at the recommendations and I found those recommendations good enough to be implemented. Go ahead and implement the thing if you can see scandals as we saw in the National Assembly (probe of NDDC) in June/July 2020.

You know, after that, Akpabio, knowing that particular interim management committee (IMC) has been blotted, has been disgraced, has been discredited, that’s the word, has been discredited before Nigerians, he then did the fast thing to go again to get Presidential approval to have a Sole Administrator. Again they (President Buhari) pandered to him and allowed him to have a sole administrator, and he has refused to inaugurate the Board. So whatever happened to fight against corruption?

Let the Federal Government implement the recommendations of the national assembly probe of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) in June/July 2020. The House of Representatives came up with its own, Senate came up with its own. Let the government look at those recommendations and blend them, cherry-pick the ones that they want and let’s have the Board, the structures in place.

You have been in the vanguard of fighting against corruption in NDDC. Right now we have another terrible situation at hand. So what do you make of this, N61.4 Billion?

What you are hearing is N61.4 billion. I can assure you that if the account of that Commission (NDDC) is audited in the last three years, you will be talking about over N300 Billion. Forget N61.4 billion, it’s just a little part of the whole. N61.4 billion is just a tip of the iceberg. Presently in that place (NDDC) every single day, billions of Naira sink. That’s the fact, the truth.

What is your reaction to the delay to inaugurate the Board of the NDDC despite the President’s promise to do so?

I don’t know if you have followed us on this Board issue. Let me strike some comparison here. You have the North East Development Commission (NEDC) today functioning with a Board in place; NNPC has been accused of corruption, yet today functioning with a proper board in place. So you ask, what exactly has made the case of NDDC different that they have refused to inaugurate a substantive board despite the fact that is what the law states. Now take note of these facts that when you have a board in place, there are benefits. The entire nine states of the Niger Delta region are to be represented, one per state. Then you have the oil companies who are providing the largest funds to run this Commission, also to have one representative. Today none of them is there.

You just have one man, a sole administrator, controlled by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, and whatsoever they sign goes. There is no check, nobody is checking,(there is no executive director of projects, no executive director of finance), only one person (sole administrator) is the one currently approving, he is the one supervising, he is the one monitoring, he is the one procuring, and he is the one paying. This is the height of fraud. Why is it that the President is refusing to inaugurate the board and yet allow few persons to feast on the resources of the Niger delta people?