The call for the inauguration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board of directors has intensified.
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Niger Delta have written to the National Working Committee (NWC) and President Muhammadu Buhari over the issue.
They warned that the party risks losing votes in the 2023 general elections in the region if the board is not constituted.
The group, under the auspices of Committed Members of APC from Niger Delta (CMAND), urged President Buhari and the party leadership to listen to the authentic voices of stakeholders from the region and inaugurate the board.
The members made the call in an open letter signed on their behalf in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday by Ebibomo Akpoebide, Menegbo Nwinuamene, and Itam Edem.
They said the ongoing interim management structure of NDDC could affect the party’s chances in the 2023 elections.
They said the region was unhappy that under the administration of President Buhari, sole administrators were being used for years to run the affairs of the NDDC thereby denying the constituent states fair and equitable representation in the commission.
“We earnestly urge President Buhari and the leadership of our great party, the APC, to act now, end the ongoing illegality of sole administratorship in NDDC, and inaugurate the substantive board of the commission in compliance with the law, the NDDC Act”, they said.
They said it was unbelievable that nine NDDC states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers, had been deprived of representation in the affairs of NDDC against the Act establishing the commission.
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“The constituent states have been deprived of the opportunity of having their representatives who, sitting on the NDDC board, are supposed to ensure that the budget of the NDDC is run in the way that what is due to each state gets to them. This blatant illegal act of the Federal Government has been de-marketing APC in the region,” they said.
The APC members recalled that in a recent letter to President Buhari and the leadership of the party, they cautioned that the APC would not win elections in the region if the government refused to inaugurate the NDDC board.
They said: “The continued administration of the NDDC by interim management committees / sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the board and management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
“Nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act.”
The APC members said President Buhari and the APC leadership should be concerned about the disdain of the Niger Delta people over the manner the Federal Government had handled the NDDC, especially administering the commission with illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions for five years in President Buhari’s and APC’s seven years in office.
They insisted that it was high time Buhari ended the ongoing illegality in NDDC if APC desired to win the upcoming general elections in the entire region and be remembered for good.
They wondered how the APC would react if the opposition party in its electioneering campaigns “denounce APC for non-compliance with the NDDC Act and thereby denying the nine constituent states of their legitimate demands for equitable representation on the board of NDDC for the benefit of their people.”
They said: “Given the various encounters our presidential aspirants had with party delegates from Akwa Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, to Rivers states, our party should no longer be in doubt about the mood of the people of the region with regard to their genuine angst towards the Federal Government and APC for the way we have been badly treated by certain elements in the Federal Government who feed fat on the resources of our region.”
They emphasised that Niger Delta leaders, governors, youths, women, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders, had consistently demanded that Buhari should comply with the law setting up NDDC, end the ongoing illegality in the commission, and inaugurate the substantive board.
The APC group also recalled that while receiving the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) in Abuja on June 24, 2021, President Buhari had said that the board would be inaugurated once the forensic audit report was submitted.
The President had said: “Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedevilled 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.”
But the APC members said the report was submitted to President 10 months ago on September 2, 2021, yet he has not inaugurated the board.
“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 three years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act.
“This administration conversely continues to administer NDDC in flagrant violation of the NDDC Act,” they said.