The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NDDC board

  • NDDC Board: Niger Delta governors missed it

    Following the dissolution of former NDDC board headed by Prof. Nelson Brambaifa of Bayelsa State and the naming of new nominees to the NDDC board by the president to be headed by Dr. Bernard Okumagba from Delta State on Wednesday, August 28, South-south governors reportedly met to reject the members-designate of the board announced by the Presidency.

    The gist of the rejection of President Muhammadu Buhari nominees according to Governor Dickson of Bayelsa State arose over the way and manner the appointments were made – although Governor Dickson would also contradict himself when he opined that “the aggrieved governors protest arose from the protests being staged by people and stakeholders across the nine member states of the NDDC”. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no known protest in the case of the Cross River State nominee, Knight Maurice Efiwat; instead there are wide jubilations across the state in celebration of his well deserved nomination.

    Their excellence are reported as saying that they were also embarrassed, because the president threw merit to the wind in the selection of persons that were nominated to the NDDC board, claiming that politics was the only consideration used in selecting members-designate contrary to the provisions of the NDDC Act.

    The call by the governors is not only selfishly motivated, but also mischievous, a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the federal government, the owner of the commission to pander to the states with a view to gaining double portions in favour of their PDP surrogates in their respective states. This is to the utter detriment of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). After all, no one PDP state in the Niger Delta has thought it wise to appoint an APC member into the membership of its boards and parastatals at any given time; yet they wish to coast home the membership of the NDDC board.

    The governors are no doubt aware that the modus operandi employed by the federal government in the selection of member-designate is in complete agreement with section 2 of the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act Cap 86 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, Volume II 2004, particularly section 2 of the Act.

    The governors, if they do not set out to play politics and playing to the gallery, are no doubt aware of the clear and unambiguous provisions of the Establishment Act regarding the powers given to the president to make appointments to the NDDC board with only the senate to confirm such appointments in consultation with the House of Representatives not with the governors. See section 5(2) and section 12(1)(c).

    Thus, following the provisions of the Act, Abia State took first the chairmanship position, followed by Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa and lastly by Cross River State. It was therefore thought that Delta State ought to take its turn, before a jump to Edo State, perhaps for the simple reason that if Delta State is to produce the position of the Managing Director of the NDDC and at the same time produce the board chairman, it would not speak well of the government, hence the exchange. It has to be noted that the use of the word SHALL in section 4 of the Act appears not to be mandatory, but permissive in context reading the sentence holistically.

    If perhaps the presidency in it search for stability and performance in the NDDC settles for a well known, tested, trusted patriot and technocrat like Bernard Okumagba from Delta State to be the new managing director, it then beholds on Edo State howbeit for a while to wait for its own turn. After all, in the Establishment Act in section 4, Delta and Edo States are listed as 4(e) and (f) respectively. It will make nonsense to logic if the chairmanship and the managing directorship come from the same state.

    It is important to avoid the generalization the governors are attempting to read into the matter by ascribing sponsored protest in Edo or Delta to be a protest across the whole of the Niger Delta which is not the case.

    A cursory reading of the NDDC (Establishment Act) will show that, it made no provision or reference to the governors of the nine NDDC states to nominate members of the NDDC board in any manner howsoever. If the understanding of the state governors is to mean the governors arrogating to themselves the responsibility of nominating members into the board in spite of the NDDC Act, then the point is missed because they have no role to play at all in the composition of the membership of the NDDC board.

    The only mandatory requirement in section 2(b) to the effect that “one person who shall be an indigene of an oil producing area to represent each of the following member state, that is (a) Abia to (ix) Rivers State.

    This present nominations of members show that the president has taken time to ensure that every member-designate selected into the membership of the NDDC Board come from the designated state making up the Niger Delta region apart from those enjoined to be appointed from other political zones. See section 2(b) of the Act.

    In Cross River State for example, the choice of Knight Maurice Effiwat cannot be a choice not well made of a technocrat, a retired Permanent Secretary, a consummate politician of proven integrity, with uncommon ability, vibrancy and capacity to deliver on the mandate of President Buhari to the NDDC.

    By extension, the same argument goes for both the nomination of Dr. Pius Odubu, a onetime deputy governor in Edo State as the chairman of the NDDC governing board, or question the nomination of the consummate technocrat, Bernard Okumagba as the managing director and chief executive of the commission. These are all proven and tested names in the South-south whose only rejection as nominees by the governors may be due to the fact that they are not PDP members.

    However, it is important to charge the president to quickly define the supervisory relationship between the NDDC as an institution and the Ministry of Niger Delta which came later in time. The relationship of the two in the last dispensation was shaky and not smooth. It must be noted from the beginning that NDDC is not an extension of the Ministry of the Niger Delta. Each has its own budget and functions.

    The new board has a responsibility to keep politics and in fighting away as to ensure that ongoing projects are executed properly.

    The governors of the nine Niger Delta States are urged not to distract the presidency for the good choices it made.

    Experience has shown that given the opportunity to nominate, the state governors will without minding public reactions go ahead to nominate their relations, town and village people, their girl friends and party affiliates.

    • Chief (Barr) Eteng, a legal practitioner writes from Calabar.
  • APC national officer urges Buhari to dissolve NDDC board

    APC national officer urges Buhari to dissolve NDDC board

    National Officer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Yekini Nabena, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dissolve the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).Nabena, in an open letter to the President dated February 26, described the continuous stay in office of the current board of NDDC as a sit-tight syndrome.

    Nabena, who is a National Ex-Officio member of APC from Bayelsa State, claimed that  the tenure of the board formally ended last December, adding that it had no legitimacy to remain in office.

    He noted that the tenures of the NDDC Managing Director/Chief Executive, Nsima Ekere, and Chairman of the commission’s board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, expired since last year, following the terms of their appointment and the law establishing NDDC.

    He said the terms and the law explicitly stated that they were to complete their respective state’s tenures.

    “While Ndoma-Egba was appointed to serve out the tenure of fellow Cross River State indigene, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, Ekere was chosen to complete the tenure of fellow Akwa Ibom citizen, Mr. Bassey Dan-Abia. Ewa-Henshaw and Dan-Abia were inaugurated in 2013 for a four-year term that ought to have ended last December”, he said.

    The APC leader maintained that Ndoma-Egba and Ekere’s continued stay in office was fraudulent and a demonstration of contemptuous.

    He said that Bayelsa State, which ought to have produced a new board chairman and other NDDC states were being shortchanged under the current situation.

    He also carpeted the managing director and the chairman for allegedly applying manipulative schemes to change the rules and perpetuate themselves in office.

    He said:  “The resort to sit-tight, crude propaganda and manipulation does not only display an arrogant contempt for the law guiding the commission, but it also offends basic decency and public morality.

    “In fact, it amounts to administrative fraud. Any further day the board exists is tantamount to allowing wilful iniquity and illegality to run riot. Moreover, the fact that they have been paying themselves all manner of allowances even after the expiration of their legal tenure is criminal.”

    Nabena urged Buhari to  redress the anomaly to restore sanity to the commission’s leadership and save the image of his government and its campaign to bring about change.

    He said: “The Act establishing the NDDC provides for a rotation of its leadership among the nine NDDC states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Abia, Imo, and Ondo.”

  • Youths seek appointment of Imo representative on NDDC board

    Youths seek appointment of Imo representative on NDDC board

    Imo State youths have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint another state representative into the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board.
    They told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri the delay in appointing the representative amounted to injustice.
    NAN recalls that President Buhari appointed Senator Osita Izunaso, who is not from an oil-producing area, a board member, but he later resigned.
    Mr. Chigozie Ohiri, the president, Niger Delta Youth Movement, Imo State chapter, appealed to the president to appoint an indigene of oil-producing area into the board.
    He said the appointment of a representative of Ohaji/Egbema or Oguta Local Government, oil-producing areas, would give the people a sense of belonging.
    Ohiri complained that none of the N30 billion contracts the commission awarded was located in the two local governments.
    “Our investigation shows none of the 15 road contracts awarded by NDDC at the cost of over N30 billion is located in Ohaji/Egbema and Oguta.
    “These are the two oil-bearing councils.
    “This is an abuse of NDDC intra-state sharing formula as enshrined in the act establishing the commission,’’ he said.
    Mr. Ozor Okorie said it was necessary for the President to appoint a representative from the oil-bearing part of the state into the board.
    He said it would guarantee justice and fair play.
    According to him, most communities in Ohaji/Egbema and Oguta local governments have no electricity and potable water, while the roads are bad and the school buildings dilapidated.
    “It is painful to note that a lot of communities in these areas lack basic infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals, potable water and good school buildings.
    “This neglect was part of the reasons we embarked on a struggle before Governor Rocha Okorocha brokered peace,’’ Okorie said.

  • ‘Oil producing states should constitute NDDC board’

    Membership of Board of Directors of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) should comprise only indigenes of oil-producing states, a pioneer advocate of Niger Delta, Prof Jasper Jumbo has said.

    He said inclusion of non-oil-producing indigenes from other zones of the country is no longer acceptable.

    Presenting a paper at the Public Hearing on the Amendment of the NDDC Act (2000) at the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Jumbo, who is Chairman Niger Delta Projects Consortium Ltd, observed that no Niger Delta indigene is in the current North East Commission or Task Force funded from the Federation Account.

    This, he said, is despite the fact that loaned funds for the North East Commission are to be repaid with accruals from oil money from the Niger Delta.

  • Niger Delta youths hail Buhari over NDDC board

    Niger Delta youths hail Buhari over NDDC board

    Niger Delta youths, under the aegis of Niger Delta Youth Movement (NDYM), have hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for reconstituting the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    They pledged to work with the new management team, led by Obong Nsima Ekere, to develop the region.

    In a statement by its National President and Secretary – Joe Jackson and Amakuro Isaac,  NDYM said the reconstitution of the NDDC board with credible, competent, experienced and versatile Nigerians demonstrated that President Buhari was an apostle of due process and the rule of law.

    The group expressed confidence that the new members would reposition the board for effective service delivery.

    NYDM said it was pleased with the choice of Obong Ekere as the managing director/chief executive officer of the NDDC.

    The group described the new helmsman as “a seasoned technocrat, administrator and team player, who could not have come at a better time than now being a former deputy governor with contacts in the nine Niger Delta states”.

    The NDYM also hoped that Ekere would be the arrowhead of government’s quest to tackle problems of the Niger Delta region.

    It condemned attempts by some individuals and groups to cause disaffection, disunity and crisis in the region, adding that what the Niger Delta need is peace, progress, socio-political and economic development as well as a clean and friendly environment.

    The group urged Niger Delta residents to look beyond partisanship and other divisive considerations to build the region for Nigerians to be proud of.

    NDYM advised stakeholders to exhibit selflessness, patriotism, nationalism and politics of inclusiveness, which it said Ekere’s appointment symbolised.

    It said: “Let us also use this medium to warn mischief makers that we will resist any attempt by any individual or group to undermine efforts of the Buhari-led administration and the new management of the commission at developing the region.

    ‘’We pledge our unalloyed support, solidarity and cooperation to the President and the incoming management board, led by Obong Ekere. We urge all Niger Deltans to give peace a chance and support government’s efforts at bringing lasting peace to the region for the betterment of the region and country.”

  • NDDC Board: Ondo monarchs to meet Buhari

    NDDC Board: Ondo monarchs to meet Buhari

    Traditional rulers of oil producing communities in Ondo State have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint an indigene as the next managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The monarchs spoke at an emergency meeting in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area at the weekend.

    The National Deputy Chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil Producing Communities in Nigeria (TROPCON) and the Alagho of Odonla, Oba Elias Ikuomola, said it was time for the state to produce the next MD.

    The monarchs lamented that the Sunshine State had not produced a candidate for any of the principal positions in NDDC since its inception 15 years ago.

    They explained that Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Rivers States, otherwise known as the “big four states”, had repeatedly produced the MD, Executive Director Projects (EDP), Executive Director Finance and Administration(EDFA)and Chairmen.

    However, the state,  number five on the list of member-states has not got any of the key positions.

    Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Oba Ikuomola, who decried the “domineering tendencies” of Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states, made reference to the Act establishing the commission.

    The Act stipulates that the appointment of the MD, EDP and EDFA shall be rotated among member-states based on their oil quantum.

    According to the monarch, the meeting became imperative to draw the President’s attention to the injustice done to Ondo State by previous administrations.

    He said they would soon send their position paper to the Presidency.

    Oba Ikuomola said they had delegated some monarchs to meet with the authorities on the need to zone the MD position to the state.

    He therefore appealed to President Buhari to strictly apply the principle of equity and rule of law while constituting the new NDDC board.

  • Why Edo has no member on NDDC board

    Why Edo has no member on NDDC board

    President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be at a crossroad over whose nominee to approve to represent Edo State on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The NDDC board has since been sworn-in but disagreements among political leaders in the state have stalled the nominee from Edo State from joining others.

    Jonathan holds the ace on who to appoint among the many names submitted for approval.

    Those battling for the slot include leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Adams Oshiomhole and four communities in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

    Names reportedly sent to the Presidency by the PDP are Chris Nehikhare, Hon Levis Aigbogun and Osahon Ahunwa. Oshiomhole prefers Henry Okhuarobo while the four communities- Ikobi, Oben, Iguelaba and Obozogbe-nugu are rooting for their son, Courage Bende.

    At the centre of those with interest in the NDDC slot is Senator Ehigie Uzamere representing Edo South Senatorial district.

    Sources told Niger Delta Report that the sour relationship between Uzamere and Oshiomhole has further stalled the approval of the names of whomever the President will send to the senate for screening.

    Some political pundits said Uzamere is using the Edo NDDC nominee to negotiate his political future, a replica of perhaps what played out ahead of the 2011 general election.

    Oshiomhole had then sought the help of Uzamere, who was then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to clear his nominee, Don Omorodion after late President Yar Adua insisted that governors should send names of nominees in line with the NDDC Act.

    Other senators from the state, Yisa Braimah and Odion Ugbesia, opposed the nomination but Uzamere who had already fallen out with leaders of the PDP in the state supported Oshiomhole’s nominee and was cleared.

    In appreciation of Uzamere’s stand, Oshiomhole dropped support for Matthew Urhoghide, a pharmacist, and ensured the return of Uzamere to the Senate.

    The relationship between Oshiomhole and Uzamere is now frosty because of what some sources said was due to the Oshiomhole’s refusal to support Uzamere’s political future. It was gathered that Uzamere was unhappy with the manner candidates were nominated for last year’s local government elections. He was said to been peeved because not even a councillor was nominated by him.

    Other sources said Uzamere’s boys were not given appointments by Oshiomhole and as such do not have any political structure within the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) now All Progressives Congress (APC).

    It was learnt that Oshiomhole was not happy with the performances of Uzamere, especially in giving back to the people.

    Sources said Uzamere is planning to return to the PDP with a view to securing the governorship ticket. He is also an ardent supporter of Jonathan

    Uzamere, in an interview, denied planning to defect to the PDP but said he was unhappy with the workings of the APC. He promised to make a statement on the matter soon.

    A close aide to Oshiomhole said Uzamere’s support was not needed to clear Edo NDDC nominee. The aide said only one vote from Uzamere could not stop other 108 senators. He added that the planned defection would not affect the fortunes of APC in the state.

    Special Adviser to the governor on Media and Public Affairs, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said the President should do the right thing in line with the NDDC Act with respect to appointment of representatives of oil producing states.

    He said: “The bucks stop at the President’s table. The Comrade Governor has submitted the name of his nominee and it is now expected for Mr. President to do the needful in line with the Act setting up the NDDC as a body with respect to appointment of representatives of the oil producing states.”

    On the agitation of the oil communities, he said: “We are acting on behalf of the entire state, duly and popularly elected. The oil communities have given their mandate to the Governor to act on their behalf. In taking any decision we don’t have to go to communities. Henry Okhuarobo, the governor’s nominee, is from a village that has oil.”