The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC is currently at the centre of a storm of controversy in Akwa Ibom State. Mr Nsima Ekere, a former Deputy Governor of the state now sits atop the interventionist agency as Managing Director and has set out to make his mark.
His start-off with the NDDC has however been undermined by some very germane issues I will shortly discuss .
Having addressed his team to the core mandate of the NDDC, which has been sabotaged and subverted over the years, the first problem popped up.
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Anti Corruption,
Prof. Istey Sagay dropped a bombshell.
He accused the NDDC of fraud in the alleged purchase of vehicles for a whooping 560 million naira. The weighty allegation prompted Mr Ekere to set up a panel on March 16, 2017 to investigate the matter.
On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, that move was frustrated. A 'brood' of former Niger Delta militants disrupted the inaugural sitting of a six-man investigative panel in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The panel, chaired by Dr. Ekanem Princewill, director, Special Duties in the Office of the Managing Director, to hear and unravel cases of allegations of corruption and racketeering concerning the commission was forced to abruptly abandon the sitting as everyone scampered for safety.
The militants had out muscled the security ring at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, venue of the sitting.
The protesting youths were arguing that the NDDC panel was a ruse and that, it was actually a gathering to dole out more fraudulent contracts.
On the contrary, the NDDC gave a spirited defense of its operation. The head, Corporate Affairs, NDDC, Chijioke Amu Nnadi, in a press statement said, the NDDC is shocked by the disruption of a genuine process aimed at Investigative Hearing, to look into and unravel allegations of corruption and racketeering in the Commission’s payment systems, and engender transparency in her activities, by the same people the commission is meant to serve.
Folks', that NDDC is hobbled and drenched in the stench of corruption is an incontrovertible fact. That her new, Managing Director/CEO, Mr Nsima Ekere, has shown aparrent concern over the widespread allegations of corruption going on the Commission, and desires to change it, is also a given.
Fact is, I doubt if he can exercise the ghost of corruption which has lived with; 9 and dogged the agency since it was formed. For, as we speak, that ghost is his Achilles heel and is already at work. How do I mean?
Let me begin by thanking; Mrs Ibim Seminitari, immediate predecessor to Mr Ekere for being so pro active and turning around the NDDC in so short a time she acted, between December 21, 2015 and July 20, 2016, following the dissolution of the Barrister Baasey Dan Abia led NDDC executive by President Muhammadu Buhari.
I look around Akwa Ibom, and Uyo in particular, and see several streets rehabilitated by the NDDC with asphalt overlay . It was during her time that these were contracted out.
Ekere, it seems, has elected to emulate Seminitari in seeking to return the Commission, to the unadulterated pursuit of the core values of probity, transparency and due process, while enthroning efficiency, excellence, and professionalism in all governance implementation protocols, as was contained in that press statement issued by Chijoke Nnadi.
The problem and disease afflicting NDDC is simple. Over the years, the primary objective of achieving sustainable regional development for the oil producing states of the Niger Delta has been compromised and effectively neutralized by politics, subterfuge and self inflicted distraction of successive leaders of the agency.
Recently, the Nsima Ekere led NDDC published a list of projects it wants to execute and called for tenders from contractors who wish to bid for the jobs.
Akwa Ibom State also featured on that list. However, rather than such gesture eliciting joy and excitement in the state, the reception has been a mixed grill of cynicism, rebuff or argument.
No sooner was the announcement made, that politicians cued in. A wave of defections from the People's Democratic Party,PDP, Akwa Ibom State chapter , to the All Progressives Congress, APC, commenced.
It was bandied about that, the contracts were dangled as a bait to lure the defectors to jump ship, with a promise of gettinga bite of the NDDC pie.
Incidentally, it is rumoured that, the NDDC helmsman Mr Ekere, is gunning to run again for Governor of Akwa Ibom State come 2019.
So, the State PDP has joined issues. They have warned their members that, the promise of NDDC contracts is a Greek gift, they should run from.
Older members of the APC in the state, PDP chieftains argue, have received no contract awards and therefore wonder, how latter day defectors would get the illusionary contract awards.
As if that is not damaging enough, a rights advocate group, Akwa Ibom Integrity Group in a seven page statement widely published in National and State based tabloids protested that, no fewer than 321 projects have been recklessly abandoned by the NDDC in the state, while more non-existent projects are currently being advertised by the current leadership of the commission.
A newspaper report on Global Pilot, states that, "Of this number, rural roads top the chart with 121 abandoned roads, while there are 75 uncompleted classroom blocks, 69 rural water schemes and 43 mini-electrification projects all left unattended to, by the current leadership of the NDDC.
The release signed by Chief Okon Jim further accused the NDDC of dishonesty in appropriating to herself, projects executed by the Akwa Ibom State government. The rights group went ahead to publish a comprehensive list of abandoned NDDC projects littered across the state.
Since then, it has been claims and counter claims by pro-NDDC pundits and pro-Akwa Ibom State commentators. The PDP and the APC, are also in the opposite dug outs trading blames for the misfortune.
I personally visited three of such abandoned, or shoddily executed NDDC projects in the state, in Nung Ukim Ikono, Ukpana - Akpabom -
Ikwe road in Onna and an embankment by one of the bridges in Eket - Ibeno road, to mention but a few. Akwa Ibom State commissioner for works, Mr Ephraim inyangeyen who conducted news men around some of these abandoned projects, lamented that, this is what happens when projects are mixed with politics.
I totally agree with that conclusion. Let me however exonerate and make clear that, Mr Ekere is not culpable for these abandoned NDDC projects. They predated his advent in the commission. But, how does he prevent this from happening again going forward?
Fact is, the reason these many projects were abandoned was because, they were political settlements or seen as such by the contractors or proxies who handled them.
The curse of the NDDC has remained that, virtually every chief executive appointed to preside over her affairs, comes on board with a baggage of political ambition to become Governor of his home state.
Chief Onyema Ugochukwu(Abia), Chief Timi Alaibe(Bayelsa) , Senator Ewa Henshaw (Cross River), Ambassador Sam Edem(Akwa Ibom) Barrister Bassey Dan Abia(Akwa Ibom) , and even some representatives of states in the commissions board have been fingered as nursing such ambition in the past and many of them actually ran for office and lost woefully .
There is nothing wrong with this, or one having ambition. Just that, for the NDDC, while the helmsman pursues his governorship project, the commission suffers. It's mandate is derailed.
It's operations are compromised and diverted for political patronage. Everyone becomes a parasite and exploits the political pulse of the NDDC Chief executive to amass wealth.
How will Ekere exorcise this ghost, now that he wants to entrench probity and restore sanity to NDDC? How will he rein in, the political profiteers who will wish to sabotage his vision and make gain on his head?
Is it more expedient he investigates and gets proper inventory of NDDC abandoned projects and revisits them where possible rather than embark on a range of new projects? Nsima Ekere has on his hands a golden opportunity to rewrite the narrative of the NDDC and inscribe his name in gold on her portals.
Hmm! How will he deal with the ghost of political ambition which subdued his forebears in the Commission? Will the NDDC ever be liberated from the challenge of having a head, whose heart is elsewhere, which has been her bane over the years?
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