Unknown contractor

By Hardball

A week after the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Acting Executive Director of Projects, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, caused a stir by alleging that a certain serving Senator from Delta State got 300 contracts from the agency, Senator James Manager representing Delta South challenged Ojougboh to name the Senator. Ojougboh said 120 of the contracts had been paid for, but didn’t say if these contracts had been executed. He didn’t name the Senator.

According to Manager, Ojougboh’s “outburst has given a job to pull him down heavy-weight politicians and their ever-ready hangouts to make stupendous insinuations and innuendos… Just mention the name in public and submit same to law enforcement agencies.”

Ojougboh’s response: “The Commission has forwarded the matter to the anti-corruption agencies and the particular Senator will soon be invited and the public will know the person soon.”

If the ball is in the court of the anti-corruption agencies, when will the anti-corruption agencies reveal the identity of the Senator at the centre of this scandal? Indeed, it is scandalous that one person allegedly got about 300 contracts, and got funds for 120 of them, which may not have been executed.

Scandals like this one may well be why the NDDC, established in 2000 by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, has failed to develop Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta.   The first commercial oil discovery in the country happened in Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa State, in 1956; and the first oil field began production in 1958.

More than six decades later, the story of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta is a continuing story.  Nigeria is said to produce about 2.5 million barrels of crude oil daily. The country is the largest producer of oil in Africa and sixth largest in the world. The country’s oil-producing states are: Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ondo, Edo, Imo and Abia.

It is inexcusable that many communities in the region that produces the country’s oil wealth reflect not only a lack of prosperity, but also perplexing poverty. It is noteworthy that President Muhammadu Buhari last month apologised to communities in Kula Kingdom, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. Buhari, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, said: “On behalf of the nation, I apologise to you. We will change for the better. We will not only build schools, hospitals and provide potable water for you; we will provide complete communities for you.”

What is the connection between the Niger-Delta’s underdevelopment and scandalous contract awards? What are the anti-corruption agencies waiting for?  Not only the Senator who allegedly got 300 NDDC contracts, but also those who gave him too many contracts should be probed and exposed.