Since she assumed office as Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Ibim Semenitari had not been ambiguous as to what mandate she received from President Muhammadu Buhari, concerning the Niger Delta region. The mandate is express, immediate and herculean. The immediacy itself, has defined the speed at which Semenitari, a manager, activist, mentor, author and award-winning journalist, had operated since December 21, 2015 when she took over from Barr. Bassey Dan-Abia. For Semenitari, using the Niger Delta Regional Master Plan, what she has dubbed ‘the Bible of the region’, the storyline, that is, the narrative, of the Niger Delta must change. Whether when she addressed staffers of the Commission, or Civil Society Organisations; or when she played host to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Niger Delta Presidential Amnesty Programme, or met with Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, Semenitari’s creed had been, “If we get it right here in the Niger Delta, we are getting it right for Nigeria”. If then, partnership remains key to a holistic development of this rich yet poor region, why had previous leadership of the Commission made bunkum of it? Whatever their choice was, for Semenitari, partnership must drive the super-structure of the Commission.
The NDDC was officially inaugurated on December 21, 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with a vision “to offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta”. With the history of failures of previous development efforts targeted at the region, framers of the Master Plan prescribed a new approach. It was the Sustainable Community Development (SCD) strategy and was to be anchored on partnerships. At the heart of the ‘integrated’ or ‘holistic’ approach adopted for the Niger Delta Regional Master Plan is a determination to understand and take account of the relationships between different aspects of life and between different agencies and other stakeholders, to involve them in the planning process and to create a shared view amongst diverse stakeholders while planning for coordinated programmes of change.
According to the document, the SCD strategy places greater emphasis on partnerships, not just with the communities themselves, but also with government and strategic local and international development organisations. This SCD strategy also recognizes the ‘symbiotic relationship’ between development and peace.
Semenitari, an activist-writer with bias for the Niger Delta region, soon as she came on board, extended the tentacles in search of partners. During her meeting with Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) and his team at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, Semenitari reiterated that the NDDC was by law, expected to forge strategic partnerships for the purpose of developing the Niger Delta region.
For Semenitari, the bourgeoning relationship/partnership with the Amnesty Office is an apt platform to turn people of the region from hewers of wood to people who would have respectable and sustainable means of livelihood.
“We need to teach our people to fish because we are a region of proud people who want to earn honest living. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be defined by the challenges of the past,” she had told the Amnesty Co-ordinator.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer assured the coordinator of the amnesty programme that the NDDC would key into the re-integration programme for the benefit of the youths, noting that development in the Niger Delta would be stalled if the former agitators were not fully re-integrated. She remarked: “The Chinese say that as long as your neighbour is hungry, your chicken is not safe. So, if Nigeria wants its chicken to be safe, it must address the problem of poverty that is bedeviling the country. We need to develop a template that would enable the country to engage the rural poor, so as to move the country from poverty to wealth.”
During her meeting with the Washington Center which Director, Africa Programme, Ms. Jennifer Cooke, came in person, the Acting Managing Director remarked that the commission needed the support of all stakeholders to succeed in the task of developing the Niger Delta region. She stressed the need for local and international organisations to pull resources together to ensure steady development in the Niger Delta, noting that the world could not afford to ignore the region. “If you don’t get the Niger Delta right, every one suffers. There is a lot of wealth in the belly of the Niger Delta and it is way beyond oil and gas. We need the assistance of CSIS to take our story to the rest of the world. However, we are not looking for handouts. We don’t need that. What we need are partners who will work with us to bring growth to the region in ways that are sustainable.”
In search of more partners, Semenitari last week knocked on the doors of two international development agencies – the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, and the British Department for International Development, DFID.
USAID Head of Mission in Nigeria, Michael T. Harvey, was joined in the meeting by Dr. Blair A. King, Director, Peace and Democratic Governance Office, Aler Grubs, Deputy Mission Director, Adamu O. Igoche, Deputy Office Director, Peace and Democratic Governance Office, and Augusta Akparanta-Emenogu, Civil Society and Media Specialist, Peace & Democratic Governance Team. Semenitari had yet one request – join us in a partnership. Mr. Harvey made recommendations on how to develop the Niger Delta region using the NDDC module.
NDDC is already reaping the fruits of the acting MD’s shuttle diplomacy. DFID, apart from buying into Mrs. Semenitari’s approach, has reached an understanding with the Commission for their first joint activity. Though both sides rescheduled their deliberations for a later date, Mrs Semenitari extracted serious commitment from the British agency for partnership. Like a diligent farmer, the fruits of that engagement with DFID will be harvested as early as February.
As Mrs Semenitari continues her drive to reposition the Niger Delta region through the platform of NDDC, in accordance with President Buhari’s marching order to her, there is no doubt that underneath is a passion to change the narrative of the region. It is a huge responsibility far above partisan politics, primordial sentiments and ethnic chant.
When on Wednesday, January 27 she appeared before the Senate Committee on Niger Delta chaired by Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, Semenitari expressed the need to re-focus NDDC from wastage to productivity. No doubt a burden located in an expectation of a people long starved of development.
There is already a new song across the hamlets, creeks and mangroves of the Niger Delta which serenade draws its rhythm from a fresh keyboard. One of Semenitari’s first key leads towards changing both the infrastructure and reputation of the Commission, was the reshuffle of portfolios. Directors and Heads of Departments were shuffled in an action the Ag. Managing Director emphasised was for optimum productivity. 21 officers were affected in the massive but efficiency-driven shake-up that covered Legal Services, Procurement, Project Monitoring and Supervision, Administration, Environmental Protection and Control as well as Education, Health and Social Services.
Other officers were also redeployed to Youths, Sports, Culture and Women Affairs, Information Technology, Special Duties, Community and Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries, Corporate Affairs, Project Management and SERVICOM Unit, while others were reassigned in seven State Offices, namely, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Imo, Rivers and Ondo.
Twelve officers retained their positions. These are in Planning, Research, and Statistics, Human Resources, Finance and Supply, Utilities, Infrastructural Development and Waterways, Commercial and Industrial Development, Internal Audit, Security as well as Public-Private Partnerships.
Semenitari holds the Niger Delta dear and has no doubt, committed herself to driving President Buhari’s agenda for the region. Her methods are simple yet potent enough to convert even her worst critics that she in for real, good business. Building on the partnership logarithm, Semenitari, no doubt, will resolve the jinx and the jig-saw that had held the region comatose. Like a surgeon with years of experience, Semenitari, having spent about twenty-seven years reporting and investigating issues of under-development and corruption in the region, is set to deploy the surgeon’s blade to the source of the cancerous growth. Yes! She is determined!
- Anyalewechi is Special Assistant to the Managing Director on Media & Communication
