After years of operating from a rented apartment, the Rivers State office of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) now has a befitting home, writes Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) 16 years ago to ensure sustainable development of the crude oil and gas-rich region.
NDDC is to improve on the performance and activities of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC).
The Federal Government’s interventionist agency (NDDC) is also to facilitate the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful, thereby offering lasting solutions to socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta.
The commission took off from rented apartments in the old Government Reservation Area (GRA) in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, before it moved to No. 167, Aba Road, an eight-storey building that belonged to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, before it was taken over by the Rivers government and the commission being its tenant.
The interventionist agency is still building its permanent corporate headquarters on Eastern Bypass in Port Harcourt, while the construction work started many years ago, with so much work still to be done at the site by the road side.
NDDC also started operating from rented apartments in the nine offices in the Niger Delta states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia and Imo.
The magnificent and befitting Rivers State office of NDDC, located at No. 125, Olu Obasanjo Road, Port Harcourt, which was inaugurated on July 12, is the first state office of the commission to be completed and inaugurated, and has changed the skyline of Port Harcourt in a good way.
The Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who cut the tape to inaugurate the imposing edifice, said it was an indication of the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure real transformation of the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria.
Mrs. Semenitari, a former Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, who was appointed as NDDC’s helmsman by President Buhari in December 2015, called for unity and peace, in order to move the Niger Delta forward.
She said: “We believe that our core mandate, which is to facilitate sustainable development in the Niger Delta region, is to take development to our communities and improve the living conditions of our people.
“To achieve this, it remains the vision of the NDDC to take development to the people, through projects and initiatives that would have direct positive impact in their lives and help boost traditional livelihoods.
“To achieve this, we must strengthen our state offices, by providing a befitting edifice that encourages professional conduct, hard work and commitment to duties, as well as decentralising operations.
“That is why the completion and commissioning of the Rivers State office is very important. We are making a statement about how important our communities are and how we must do the best we can to serve them.”
The old site of the Rivers state office of NDDC was demolished in March 2014, while work commenced on the new building on May 1, 2014, with the project planned to be completed within nine months.
In October 2014, within six months of commencement of work, about 80 per cent of builders’ work had been achieved, but the project lost traction in 2015, with the speed of work drastically reduced, due to delayed payments to the contractors by NDDC, occasioned by funding challenge.
To avoid any hitch during the inauguration of the Rivers state office, with state-of-the-art facilities, the acting managing director of NDDC and some top officials of the commission, on July 11, embarked on pre-inauguration inspection.
While speaking at the site, she disclosed that the built-to-purpose complex was the first to be completed, as part of efforts to strengthen the presence of the commission in all its mandate states.
According to Mrs. Semenitari, it was a big relief for NDDC to be able to move into its own property, after sixteen years of working from rented offices.
She said: “It is very gratifying, as it is one of the things we always wanted to do. Now, we will no longer be chased around by landlords. So, even when we do not have money, we know that at least we can enter into our office space and sleep well. This is why it is such a good feat for us as a commission.
“Of course, more importantly is the fact that it is a purpose-built structure and our staff will be able to work in a better environment and also deliver better services to the people of the Niger Delta, especially in Rivers State that owns the state office.”
The CNN award-winning journalist also assured that NDDC would try to ensure that the other state offices across the region were constructed as quickly as possible, for the comfort of staff in the offices, stressing that the new Rivers office would be a model for the other state offices, but with some modifications.
Mrs. Semenitari revealed that with the Rivers state office of the commission completed; work on the permanent corporate headquarters of NDDC in Port Harcourt would be stepped up.
She said: “We are going to speed that (work at the permanent corporate headquarters of NDDC) up a bit. It’s been a little slower than we would like, but that has been for several reasons. However, we are going to speed up the process there and we expect that very soon, we should also move into our own property at the headquarters.”
Taking the NDDC boss round the new Rivers state office, the Acting Director, Project Monitoring and Supervision of the commission, Felix Aomuore, an engineer, revealed that the building is on four floors, with ample space for offices and a basement floor for archiving and car park.
He said the new building had provisions for many facilities, including a large reception hall, conference/multi-purpose hall for 250 people, staff canteen, sick bay and offices for drivers on the ground floor.
Aomuore noted that the Rivers state office would accommodate about 120 staff, with unique office suites for the State Representative and the Director of the state office, stressing that provisions were made for some head office directorates, such as Commercial and Industrial Development; Agriculture and Fisheries, Youth, Women and Sports.
The project consultant, Michael Ukpeh, an architect, pointed out that Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras had been installed to capture activities on all corridors within the imposing edifice and activities on the immediate vicinity of the building, with a control point at the security office.
Ukpeh noted that besides the two staircases, the building also had an elevator for ease of vertical circulation, with the entry and exit facilitated for the physically challenged, in compliance with the requirements of the National Building Code for public buildings, while the cooling system is centrally coordinated on floor-by-floor controls.
The project consultant discloses that an internal courtyard complements the large exterior windows to provide ample day lighting in the offices and cross ventilation in case of power failure at the purpose-built office.
On the inauguration day (July 12), the Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike; Mrs. Semenitari; the monarch of Port Harcourt City (Eze Epara Rebisi XII), His Majesty Victor Nnanna Woluchem II and others described the new Rivers office of NDDC as a step in the right direction.
Wike, who was represented by his Special Adviser on NDDC Matters, Aribitonye Okiri, stated that his administration had not been playing politics with development, making him to be at the elaborate inauguration.
The Rivers governor, who is a former Minister of State for Education, noted that jobs meant for indigenes of the state, especially persons on Levels 1 to 6, should be given to people of the host communities, to ensure peace.
While also speaking, the monarch stated that the edifice was the first state office to be inaugurated in the nine states of the Niger Delta, which he said was not by accident, but considering the peaceful nature of the people of the state.
The royal father noted that the area had not been experiencing youth restiveness or cultism, stressing that the only weapon the people had was negotiation, while lauding President Muhammadu Buhari for the right choice of Mrs. Semenitari as NDDC’s acting managing director, describing her as very hardworking, courageous, disciplined, fearless and of integrity.
The inauguration was also attended by Rivers Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mrs. Helen Amakiri, and an Assistant Commissioner for Police in Rivers state, Presley Dode.
In her address, after cutting the tape to inaugurate the building, Mrs. Semenitari said the edifice was designed and completed with the staff members in mind, stressing that it was indeed, workers’ delight.
The Director of Rivers state office of NDDC, Benson Udo-Asubop, said the building would enhance the productivity of the workers.
Udo-Asubop also lauded Mrs. Semenitari for her zeal and commitment to transforming the Niger Delta, in line with the vision of President Buhari and for believing in the abilities of NDDC’s workers at the Rivers state office to ensure service delivery and greater performance.
