The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established to offer lasting solutions to the socio-economic difficulties of the oil producing states. But leadership of the multi-billion naira Commission has been too busy with tribal sentiments to remember its core remits, GODWIN IJEDIOGOR writes.
Renewed controversy and agitation over the recent appointments into the Board and management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), by President Bola Tinubu, on which state the chief executive of the Commission should come from, is one too many.
Following the fresh appointment of Dr Samuel Ogbuku as managing director of the interventionist agency, which is still subject to confirmation of the Senate, the Itsekiri in Delta State and Ilaje/Ese-Odo, in Ondo State who claimed it was their turn (codenamed: emi l’okan) to occupy the position, have urged the President to review the appointment and select their son/daughter to the office.
Notwithstanding, some stakeholders in the oil-rich region applauded the President for the calibre of people appointed into the NDDC Board. A letter to the President, signed by the Egogo (announcer) of Warri Kingdom, Chief Robinson Ariyo, stated that the appointment of an Itsekiri would lay to rest, their alleged age-long marginalisation and suppression on issues of appointment into the commission’s Board.
Ariyo recalled that when Chief Godwin Omene, Pastor Power Aginighan and Chief Emmanuel Ogidi could not complete their various tenures, they were replaced by people from their ethnic nationalities, but when their son, Mr. Tuoyo Omatsuli, could not complete his tenure, he was replaced by an appointee from another ethnic group, thereby jettisoning the arrangement.
He stated that an Urhobo, Senator Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, replaced Omene as MD; Mr Lambert Komboye, replaced by fellow Ijaw, Aginighan, as executive director, Finance and Administration; while Mr Emmanuel Ogba, an Isoko, replaced Ogidi as the Delta State representative on the Board.
He explained that when the Itsekiri took their protest then to the Federal High Court in Abuja, the matter was, however, resolved out of court with the understanding that the lopsidedness would be corrected subsequently, but that was ignored, as appointees by the state and the managing director to the new Board were made from ethnic groups that had taken their turns several times in the commission.
The South-South Elders Progressive Forum, last year, accused the then Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), of plotting to favour Edo over Bayelsa State and mislead President Muhammadu Buhari in appointments into the agency’s Board by misinterpreting the provisions of Section 12 (1) of the NDDC Act 2000 as it relates to the managing director.
In a statement titled, ‘NDDC: Don’t set Niger Delta on fire,’ and signed by its Chairman, Dr. Promise Okpolo, and Coordinator, Community Relations, Chief Anderson Etiewo, the Forum argued that the Act did not envisage an interim management, adding: “When Omene was removed midterm in 2003, he was replaced by Agwariavwodo, also from Delta State, who later resigned and Alaibe was uplifted from EDFA to complete the tenure.
“Again, when on September 14, 2011, Chibuzor Ugwoha, an indigene of Rivers State, was removed as managing director, he was replaced with Mr. Christian Oboh, who hails from the same community.
“In 2013, when Mr Bassey Dan Abia from Akwa Ibom State was sacked before the end of his four-year tenure, he was replaced in 2015 with Mrs. Ibim Semenitari in acting capacity by Buhari until Mr Isima Ekere, also from Akwa Ibom State, was appointed on November 1, 2016 to complete Abia’s tenure and exited office at the end of 2018, which was end of a substantive and lawfully constituted board for the NDDC.
“It is pertinent to note with emphasis that neither Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, who was appointed acting managing director in January 2019, nor Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, also appointed acting managing director on February 20, 2020 to head an Interim Management Committee (IMC) for a forensic audit of the commission were appointed substantive managing directors in a properly and duly constituted board in accordance with the provisions of the NDDC Act.”
It noted that Pondei was the fifth acting managing director within a period of one year, insisting Brambaifa and Pondei, both from Bayelsa State, were never appointed in a statutorily constituted substantive Board, while Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, had at least two indigenes each appointed as substantive managing directors on a duly constituted board.
It regretted that Bayelsan had been appointed as a substantive managing director in a new Board or to complete a full tenure after the two-year period Alaibe was upgraded to fill in the gap following Agwariavwodo’s exit.
On his part, a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Donald Ojogo, representing Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in Ondo State, urged Tinubu to address the age-long alienation of the Southwest in NDDC Board appointments, saying the exclusion of the zone, particularly Ondo State, seems to confirm the perception that its headship, especially the managing director position, is the exclusive preserve of the South-South states, which he stressed is “disdainful and repulsive.”
In a letter to the President, Ojogo referred to Section 12(1) of the NDDC Act, 2000, which states: “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director, and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas, starting with the member states of the Commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate amongst member states in the order of production.”
He, therefore, appealed to Tinubu to consider the contents and spirit of the Act by appointing an indigene of Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency of Ondo State as the next managing director, saying this would effectively erase the impression that the Southwest does not have a right to the position.
The Arogbo-Ijaw lawmaker and a former commissioner for Information in Ondo State added: “The appointment of the last Executive Director (Projects) of the NDDC, Mr. Ogunmola, an indigene of Owo Local Government Area from Ondo North Senatorial District, was in flagrant breach of the NDDC Act, 2000, even as amended.
“It was more curious that the ninth Senate presided over by Senator Ahmad Lawan cleared Ogunmola despite written protestations of Senators Robert Ajayi Borofice (North), Ayo Akinyelure (Central) and Nicholas Tofowomo (South) to that effect.
“Therefore, the behind-the-scene manoeuvring, manipulations and disinformation on the part of the now dissolved Governing Board, especially the immediate-past managing director and the two executive directors to perpetuate themselves should be disregarded and out rightly rejected.
“That, beyond being an aberration, is a calculated effort that has brazenly heaped injustice upon the Southwest, and in particular, the oil-producing Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency, Ondo State to the advantage of the South-South states.”
However, many in the Niger Delta region seem not to be swayed by these protests and agitations. Indeed, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), in a press release by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ken Robinson, commended Tinubu for quickly reconstituting the Board and reappointing Ogbuku as managing director.
The apex socio-cultural body of the Niger Delta region said the appointments and nominations largely satisfy its expectations and that of a vast majority of the people, adding that the President’s action complies with the law and fundamental principles behind the establishment of the Commission.
PANDEF stated that Tinubu’s action provides a glimmer of hope that, perhaps, his administration would depart from the gross nonchalance of the immediate past administration and devote the much-needed attention and seriousness to issues of the Niger Delta region, noting that Ogbuku’s appointment is a step, undoubtedly, taken to avoid the frequent disrupting changes in the management of the Commission, especially in the recent past.
PANDEF called on the people of the Niger Delta to shun actions that would undermine the smooth running of the Commission, but support the Board and management to work in the best interest of the region, in particular, and the country as a whole.
President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, while appreciating the relatively timely reconstitution of the Board, said: “We expect its inauguration soonest.
Government should address the common cry for adequate funding, including timely release of funds to the Commission.
Okaba charged the Board and its members to be focused on their core mandate, which include fostering peace, sustainable infrastructure development, environmental remediation, human capital development and prosperous livelihood in the Niger Delta region, adding that the Board should be responsive to the yearnings and be accountable to the masses of the region.
The leader of the umbrella body of the Ijaw worldwide called for the immediate release of the report of the forensic audit and appropriate steps taken to correct or improve on areas identified, even as he charged the Board to collaborate with academic institutions and centres of Niger Delta Studies and international organisations to upgrade their capacities to serve the region better.
On agitations over appointment, especially managing director, Okaba, while acknowledging seeming non-strict adherence to the extant law, urged understanding to move the Commission forward and foster genuine development of the oil-producing area.
Much as most of the appointments are influenced by politics, he, however, called for less political interference in the running of the agency, especially by godfathers, reminding the appointees that it is their names that will be at stake at the end of the day and not their godfathers.
He charged them to strike a balance without soiling their hands or pandering to their godfather, particularly regarding funds, regretting that the Commission has become a cash cow for election funds over the years.
The university don lamented a situation where oil resources in the Niger Delta is considered a national cake and national inheritance, while mineral resources in the North are practically left to the bearing states to explore, warning that it is unfair to allow some retired Generals and wealthy individual to mine Gold, for example, in Zamfara State, while opposing 50 per cent derivation or resource control in the oil-bearing South-South region.
He called for at least a return to the 50 per cent pre-independence derivation formula, saying that is the only way the environment degradation in the Niger Delta can be adequately addressed.
Indeed, Robinson, on a personal level, believes that capacity, rather than state of origin, should matter most in the appointment of the managing director at this point in NDDC’s chequered history, so long as the appointee is from the oil-producing area.
He expressed optimism and confidence in the reconstituted Board and Management, especially considering the antecedents of Ogbuku since becoming the chief executive officer, saying he has exhibited capacity to bring about the desired change in the affairs of the Commission and indeed development in the Niger Delta. (Guardian)
