The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NDDC

  • NDDC donates 500kva generator to Ibom Specialist Hospital

    The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has donated a 500 KVA generator to the Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

    The Managing Director, Mr Nsima Ekere, made the donation on Saturday when he led a delegation from the Commission to the hospital.

    Ekere said the NDDC would partner the Akwa Ibom State Government to ensure the objective upon which the Ibom Specialist Hospital was conceptualised and built was achieved.

    According to Ekere, the equipment and facilities in the hospital cannot function optimally and efficiently without constant power, a deficiency he noted necessitated the NDDC’s intervention towards solving the electricity challenge of the hospital.

    His words: “NDDC will also partner the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Limited to ensure that the hospital is connected to the national grid.”

    He said the hospital which was built by the Akpabio administration to curb medical tourism in the country has world class facilities that can provide services that meet international best standard.

    Ekere explained that one of Niger Delta’s health challenges is the effect of hydrocarbon emission which causes cancer hence the determination of the NDDC to partner the hospital to have a Cancer Centre that is functional, effective and efficient.

    He commended the staff for exhibiting a high level of professionalism in the discharge of their duties to patients.

    Ekere stated that the Commission remains committed towards partnering the Akwa Ibom State government in ensuring that intervention projects that add value to the lives of the people are done.

    He said: “Whoever takes credit for projects is not the issue. The people who are beneficiaries of the project should take credit.”

    Ekere said the NDDC Governing Board would soon pay a courtesy call to the Akwa Ibom government to work out modalities for a partnership that benefits the people.

    He said: “Our job is to partner with various state governments to have enduring structures in the region.”

    Responding, a director in the hospital, Dr. Kofo Ogunyanrin, thanked the NDDC for intervening to solve the electricity challenge, stating that the generator donated would assist the hospital to function optimally.

  • The NDDC/NLNG tussle

    Members of the Green Chamber of the National Assembly on May 9 defended the country’s national interest when it passed a bill which requires the payment of three per cent of annual budget of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, into the coffers of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

    The amendment bill, promoted by Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, adjusts the Nigeria LNG (Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances) Act. The House will now transmit the bill to the Senate for concurrence.

    In the new provision adds section 7b to the principal Act, which provides that “Notwithstanding section 7 or any other provision of this Act, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited shall pay 3% of its total annual budget to the Niger Delta Development Commission Fund as required by section 14 subsection 1 and 2b of the NDDC establishment Act, 2000.”

    Leading the debate on the NLNG Act of 2004, Leo Ogor, argued that with the untold environmental and health havoc wreaked on the people of the Niger Delta for decades, “the only way we can solve this problem is to bring relevant amendments to the Act because our people have suffered so much and I said that it is very important that we appreciate the enormity of the danger present in the region for us to act quickly and as a people, hold the NLNG responsible for unnecessary gas flaring using this amendment.

    “The amendment to this Act is aimed at redressing the great injustice that the NLNG has meted to the people of the Niger Delta region for almost 27 years now,” he said.

    “To partly or completely rejuvenate the environment, the NDDC establishment Act, specifically section 14 (2)(b), stipulates that three per cent of the total annual budget of any oil producing company operating onshore and offshore in the Niger Delta area, including gas processing companies like NLNG, shall pay the said percentage into the funds of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

    Surprisingly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has raised its voice in protest against the proposed amendment. The NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said that the move against the NLNG would have negative effects on strategic projects like the Brass LNG as it would discourage investors. Of course many stakeholders in the Niger Delta maintain that this line of thought flies in the face of reason and justice.

    The stakeholders remind those who care to listen that the Niger Delta had suffered for too long and it was imperative that development agencies, such as the oil companies, the federal, state, local governments, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC, must collaborate at different levels to drive a regional development masterplan for the region.

    The NDDC had always joined forces with key stakeholders in confronting the enormous challenges of making a difference in the lives of the people in the remote communities of the Niger Delta. One of such collaborations is in the construction of the 29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe road, which it is undertaking in partnership with the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.

    The N24 billion project illustrates the kind of challenges confronting the Niger Delta. It cuts through the swamps with 10 bridges and 99 culverts. The terrain is such that four metres of clay soil had to be dug out and then sand-filled to provide a base for the road. It shouldn’t surprise anyone therefore to learn that constructing a road in this tough environment costs twice or thrice what is required in other parts of the country.

    The NDDC Act states clearly how the commission shall be funded. Section 14[2] provides that “there shall be paid and credited to the fund established pursuant to subsection [1] of this section; [a] from the Federal Government the equivalent of 15 per cent of the total monthly allocation due to the member states of the commission from the federation account, this being the contribution of the Federal Government to the commission; [b] three per cent of the total annual budget of any oil-producing company operating onshore and offshore in the Niger Delta area, including gas processing companies; [c] 50 per cent of monies due to member states of the commission from the ecological fund…” and other sources such as grants and loans.

    The oil companies have also not been paying the three per cent of their annual budget as required by law. Records show that they deduct first charges before calculating the three per cent from the balance. Given the enormous impact of their activities on the environment, the oil companies are expected to be at the forefront in the critical task of urgently developing the oil basin that has suffered so much neglect in the past. It is, in fact, in their interest to develop the region where they operate in order to guarantee peace, which is very necessary for them to continue with their work.

    Among those that have expressed their frustrations over this state of affairs is the Bayelsa State Governor, Hon Seriake Dickson, who was obviously worried by the poor funding of the interventionist agency.

    He said: “The purpose of establishing the NDDC will be defeated if it is not in a position to undertake critical development projects in the Niger Delta; its purpose will be meaningless, if it will only award contracts for construction of classroom blocks and other jobs that may not have the capacity to impact the development of the area.”

    According to the governor, the major challenges in the Niger Delta were ecological and environmental and the realization of this fact should be reflected in the release of funds by the federal authorities. Sadly, this has not been so, thus limiting the capacity of the NDDC to fulfil its mandate of transforming the region that produces over 90 per cent of the country’s oil wealth.

    The Senate had since last year shown willingness to assist the NDDC to recover its outstanding funds.  The chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, noted that proper funding would help NDDC adequately address the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region, stating that the challenge of developing the region was enormous and that all relevant contributors to the NDDC must play their roles diligently.

    “Senator Nwaoboshi said that the committee was ready to do all it would take, including amending necessary laws, where necessary, to ensure full compliance by agencies statutorily obligated to contribute funds to the NDDC.

    The Nwaoboshi-led committee swung into action shortly after, summoning the defaulting agencies to provide the much-needed explanations. It formally opened an investigation into the non-remittance of statutory contributions to the commission by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG and Ecological Fund Office.

    After its investigative hearing on February 3, 2016, Senator Nwaoboshi said that both the NLNG and Ecological Fund Office had starved the NDDC of its statutory funds for more than 15years, describing the failure of the agencies to remit required funds as fragrant abuse of the law setting up the NDDC.

  • NDDC vows to cancel N200b projects

    NDDC vows to cancel N200b projects

    •‘We’ve completed N38.8b projects in Bayelsa’

    THE Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) will expunge N200b worth of projects from its book to reduce its project-carrying capacity to a manageable size.

    Chairman of NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, stated this in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa at the weekend.

    He spoke when he led a team of the commission’s board and management on a courtesy visit to Governor Seriake Dickson in Government House, Yenogoa.

    Ndoma-Egba, who lamented that the commission had too many projects in its books, said: “In the next couple of days, the NDDC will cancel about N200 billion projects from our books.

    “We need to reduce the projects we are handling to a manageable number that will make more impact.”

    “We are forging a new relationship with stakeholders in the region.

    He added: “The new spirit of cooperation entails our not competing with the states and local governments.

    “To deepen this new relationship, we have written to the President to re-activate the Advisory Committee and the Project Monitoring Committee.

    “We need these two committees to be able to share our visions for the region and avoid duplication.  We need the project Monitoring committee to enable us earn the trust of our partners.”

    The commission also disclosed that it had so far completed 233 projects in Bayelsa State valued at N38.8b.

    Other members of the NDDC delegation were the Managing Director, Nsima Ekere; the Executive Director Projects, Samuel Adjogbe, FNSE, the Bayelsa State representative on the NDDC board, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa and other directors of the Commission.

    Ndoma-Egba further pledged that the commission would complete the 25.7km Ogbia-Nembe Road being executed in conjunction with the Shell Petroleum Development Commission (SPDC) before the end of the year.

    “We must finish and commission the Ogbia-Nembe Road.  It is a commitment we must fulfill this year,” he said.

    He said that the Commission was implementing four strategies of restructuring the commission’s balance sheet, which currently has about N1.2trillion projects.

    This, according to him, will enable it reform the governance systems to ensure compliance with extant rules and regulations to prevent past mistakes.

    The chairman stressed the need for the commission to return to the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan, which was launched with fanfare in 2007.

    He said: “The stakeholders will decide whether to terminate that Master Plan, update it or upgrade it. But a Master Plan is very necessary.

    “The commission is thinking beyond oil because oil is a finite resource, which will one day dry up. Someday, technology may make it irrelevant.”

    Dickson expressed delight at the Ogbia-Nembe road project, which was opening up 14 communities to economic activities and modern development.

    He said that his administration was ready to partner with the NDDC.

    He said: “We thank the Federal Government for creating different platforms, including the NDDC to fast-track the development of the Niger Delta which has suffered a lot of neglect in the past.”

    Dickson advised stakeholders in the region to put in more efforts to change the negative perception of the oil-rich region.

    He said: “While we blame the Federal Government, we should also look inwards to make a difference and change the narrative in the region.

    “Our people are dying from the hazards of oil and gas exploration and exploitation with no concrete benefits to our people.”

    Governor Dickson advised the NDDC to ensure that available resources were channeled to projects that would affect the lives of the people.

    The governor said that the calibre of people in the present NDDC board gives causes for optimism in the days ahead, adding: “We cannot afford the luxury of playing politics with matters of development.”

  • Dickson lashes NDDC

    Dickson lashes NDDC

    •Urges commission to step up development efforts

    MIFFED by what it described as the unprogressive tendencies of some Niger Delta leaders, Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson has impressed on the leaders the need to close ranks and rededicate themselves to the development of the region.

    The governor said it was worrisome that privileged Bayelsans and by extension those from other Niger Delta states who occupied and are still occupying various political offices would prefer to concern themselves with mundane things rather than the development of the region.

    The governor stated this yesterday at the Government House Yenagoa while addressing the board and management of the Niger Delta Commission (NDDC) led by the chairman, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba who paid him a courtesy call.

    Dickson charged the new NDDC board not to follow same path as the Niger Delta region is highly in need of development, lamenting that over sixty years after oil was first discovered in Bayelsa most of the communities with abundant resources are still not connected by road to the state capital.

    “Till today, 61 years after the discovery of oil and gas, there is no road to get to Brass Oil terminal and even as we speak that is where oil is being lifted day and night. No road as we speak to Oporoma, Koluama. We are not a happy people. No investment on human capacity development. Young people from our region have all become militants who carry AK-47 rifle and these are young generation that should have helped develop our land which we have now lost.”

    He pointed out that one of the greatest challenges the NDDC has always had is politicizing its activities to suit the whims and caprices of some individuals and warned that if the present board allows itself to be used then posterity will judge them wrongly.

    In a related development, the NDDC has said it would reduce its project carrying capacity to a manageable size by expunging N200b worth of projects from its book.

    The commission also disclosed that it had so far completed 233 projects in Bayelsa State valued at N38.8b.

    Ndoma-Egba said that the commission had so far awarded 941 projects in the state.

    Other members of the NDDC delegation were the Managing Director, Mr. Nsima Ekere; the Executive Director Projects, Mr. Samuel Adjogbe, the Bayelsa State representative on the NDDC board, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa and other directors of the Commission.

    Ndoma-Egba, who lamented that the commission had too many projects in its books, said: “In the next couple of days, the NDDC will cancel about N200 billion projects from our books. We need to reduce the projects we are handling to a manageable number that will make more impact.”

  • Politics of NDDC projects in Akwa Ibom

    Politics of NDDC projects in Akwa Ibom

    Nkeneke Efo, an Uyo-based journalist, analyses the politics of the state of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) projects in Akwa Ibom State.

    Nsima Ekere is just one of few Akwa Ibom indigenes to have been privileged to serve in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) at the level of Chairman, Managing Director (MD) or Executive Director (ED).

    Others who served at some of these levels before him were Ambassador Sam Edem (Chairman); Barrister Bassey Dan-Abia (Acting Chairman/Managing Director); Udo Mbosoh (ED); Eshiett (ED); Engr. Thomas Ukott (ED), amongst others.

    But Ekere’s tenure, which is just about six months old, has seen the NDDC became a song on every lip in the state, owing, principally, to the new interest generated in the project of the commission.

    It all started when the Commission under Ekere, a former Deputy Governor of the State, barely two months in office, rolled out an advertisement for tender on contract jobs available for award. About 60 were for Akwa Ibom State only and covered the areas of the Commission’s mandate: Water, health, education, power and roads. Almost all local government areas had one or two of the projects listed. This, in addition to about 37 Emergency Roads Repair jobs that were also awarded by the commission, was enough to send signals to discerning citizens that the commission was going to be pro-active in its posture towards the state.

    The road projects, especially, were awarded on roads that had long been abandoned, neglected by past government and which were in different states of disrepair, always flooded and most times, impassable. Some of the roads are Ukana Offot Street, School Roads, Udo Eduok Street, Nelson Mandela, Federal Housing Estate, Uyo among other roads in Uyo, and several others across the state.

    Not many, especially in the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which produced the Governor  Udom Emmanuel, saw the move as being political. There are speculations that Ekere, who had previously ran for the office of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, will run again in 2019, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Emmanuel is interested in a second term.

    To the PDP, spotting Ekere early enough was fair. Sensing the direction of his Commission’s intervention in the development of the state was fairer. What to do? Politicise the intervention and set up a political ambush for the intention of the Commission in fulfilling its mandate to the people of the state, so far it stops Ekere from getting an associated boost for his perceived aspiration in 2019.

    The opportunity showed up when the state government, which had worked on one of the roads abandoned by the NDDC in Ikono Local Government Area, went to inaugurate the road. Commissioner for Works Akparawa Ephraim Inyang said the NDDC had turned the state to an abandoned project site, urging the Federal Government to probe the NDDC over the act. In quick succession, a group, Akwa Ibom Integrity Group, which many believe is funded by agents of the government, ran a 7-page advertorial in national and local newspapers calling  for the probe of the current management of the NDDC. Their petition listed 377 projects purportedly abandoned in the state.

    What the petitioners did not know was that they had stirred the hornet’s nest. Ekere, who was their subject, was not to be found in the nest as other groups joined the petitioners, but this time with a refrain demanding that the probe should rather be on  the contractors, who were mainly members of the then ruling PDP. The contractors listed in the petition were mostly ones awarded between 2007 and 2015 when the PDP held sway at the commission. The hunter thus became haunted.

    To date, outside the emergency road repair contracts, Ekere’s NDDC is yet to award contracts in the state. The process for awards is, however, on. The commissioner recanted, saying he was not calling on the government to probe the PDP contractors but for the NDDC to complete its abandoned projects.

    Some weeks after, another opportunity showed up. Minister of the Niger Delta Pastor Usani Usani was in the state to inspect projects under his ministry. The Commissioner for Works followed him round. The minister obviously irked by the quality of job by some contractors complained. The Works Commissioner’s media handlers went to town: ‘Minister berates NDDC for poor quality of jobs’, starting their stories with “the Managing Director of the NDDC, Nsima Ekere, has been berated by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, for the poor quality of jobs by the NDDC.” It became an issue which led to the NDDC Director of Commercial and Industrial Development, Mr. Anietie Usen, a veteran journalist who served as the first Head of Corporate Affairs of the Commission, coming to Uyo to clear the misconceptions about the state, situation, quantity and quality of projects in the state.

    Inyang countered by appearing on the state owned AKBC-Radio to make further comments, including saying: “I want to appeal to the NDDC to direct their contractors working on Ewet Housing Estate roads to do a good job. They are currently putting red earth on unsuitable materials. This is below sub-standard. That road will collapse in three months. We want roads in Akwa Ibom but we want good quality roads that will last.”

    The attention of the Minister, Pastor Usani, was drawn into the crisis and he quickly sent out a release: “My attention is drawn to press posts which suggest that I hold the MD of NDDC, Nsima Ekere, responsible for poor projects delivery. Whereas I express grave disconnect for obvious observation of poor project execution, there is no wresting of attributing the case to the current management. I am conscious of the fact that my observation predates the current management which places no burden of liability on the Managing Director (Ekere).”

    Day after day, especially in local newspaper and on radio stations in the state, the debate on the NDDC projects prevail, mostly fuelled by the politics of 2019 and the political traducers of the MD, Ekere.

    My investigations to road project sites reveal that the NDDC has a very robust checkup system initiated by the current management.

    At the Federal Housing Estate, Abak Road, Uyo, where the NDDC has “cleaned up” the once desolate estate, the Managing Director of the firm handling the “clean up,” God’s Owned Projects Limited, Mr. Godwin Brownson, said “those who said NDDC does poor jobs, should come and see what we are doing. They also do not know the NDDC very well. There is a serious quality assurance scheme in the NDDC contract process. There is no way I can do any of the bits on the BEME (Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation) that NDDC project monitors and inspectors don’t come to see. Even if they were not to come, most of the contractors are conscious that they have to build a good name and therefore cannot afford to do shoddy jobs. Every NDDC contractor wants a new job and also wants to get paid. The payment process is strictly based on quality of delivery and other due process. So, no NDDC contractor can joke with the quality of work he is contracted to do.”

    “The job we are doing here is almost a complete new road, though the NDDC calls it emergency repairs. From excavating the old road surface, filling it with new laterite, stone basing, priming and asphalting, complete with new drains, it is a complete process of constructing a new road. The people of the state should be grateful to NDDC for this intervention,” Brownson added.

    Investigation shows the people are grateful. A few I spoke with said they have never had it so good with NDDC. Imaobong Effiong, who runs a restaurant in the estate, said her area was inaccessible because of the bad road and she had to close down her restaurant, but with NDDC interventions, more shops including her restaurant have reopened for business.

    To Otu Ita Toyo, former PDP State Chairman, “It is wrong to politicize the NDDC intervention. In a widely circulated piece he titled Where We There When The Vultures Gathered?, he stated: Now, if Akwa Ibom State Government draws attention to abandoned NDDC projects in the state in good faith, they are in order. Starting  from abandoned local and state projects, the state government has a duty to ensure the completion of project within her jurisdiction even when the project was instituted by United Nations. There is nothing amidst there. To our fortune, the NDDC is here doing what the agency could not begin to contemplate in the days we controlled the Presidency. Would it not be a source of joy to then complement the state government for a change. Both Governor Akpabio and Presidient Jonathan publicly acknowledged that during their time in office, the PDP Federal Government and NDDC did nothing for Akwa Ibom State. Must we encourage that situation to survive now that we have the good fortune of a son who remembers the situation back home? The unhealthy rivalry is senseless, rather there should be cooperation.

    Another former PDP chieftain, Chief Edet Mkpubre, former National Vice Chairman, Southouth, said: “All these stories of abandoned projects and blaming same on the present management of the Commission, boils down to the politics of 2019 in the state and that is regrettable. It is impossible to assess the Managing Director of NDDC in just five months.”

    Possibly conscious of this scheming against the leadership, the Commission has at every fora reiterated its commitment to ensure that projects are driven more by community needs than any other considerations and also ensure that contractors perform within the confines of best practices and quality delivery.

    In an address to the Akwa Ibom State Phase of the Stakeholders Consultative Enlightenment Programme in Uyo, Ekere had said that with the determination of the Commission’s leadership, it was incumbent on stakeholders to provide independent verification of project status within their communities, pointing out that the Commission recently launched a project monitoring and information portal that enables stakeholders to send pictures and updates of projects in progress.

    The commission has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FOSTER, one of its development partners, to strategically translate the Commission from a contract awarding institution to a development-based institution. The MoU will ensure the development of a communication strategy that has a mechanism that allows for feedback from key stakeholders that will ensure all key stakeholders are aware of NDDC activities as well as develop a robust monitoring and evaluation strategy that will ensure projects are impactful in the lives of the host communities.

  • Ex-commissioner seeks prosecution of defaulting NDDC contractors

    A former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Akwa Ibom State, Chef Victor Iyanam, has called for the arrest and prosecution of contractors who abandoned projects of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), if they fail to return to site.

    Works Commissioner Ephraim Inyang recently blew the whistle on contractors, mainly members of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who allegedly abandoned NDDC projects in the last 16 years.

    In a programme on Planet FM, a private radio station in Uyo, monitored by our reporter, Iyanam said the prosecution of such contractors was necessary to restore sanity to the system and serve as a deterrent to others.

    He said: “Those contractors must be prosecuted and made to refund the money they collected. If people are not punished for committing crimes against the people, they would continue to do so.”

    He said it was irritating that Inyang was championing the campaign against NDDC whereas he is “a man who has his hands full with uncompleted and abandoned projects of the state government”.

    Iyanam said the attacks on the NDDC Managing Director, Obong Nsima Ekere, allegedly sponsored by the state government, were because of the perception that he was interested in the 2019 governorship race and not because he was responsible for the abandonment of the projects, since he was barely six months in office.

  • Group rues media attacks on NDDC boss

    Network Advancement Program for Disaster Risk Reduction (NAPPDRR), a nongovernmental organisation has faulted the spate of media attacks on the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Obong Nsima Ekere, describing it as “cheap blackmail and a deliberately orchestrated politically-motivated campaign.”

    The President of the group, Hon. al mustapher Emem Edoho, said the campaign would only heat up the polity ahead of the 2019 election year.

    In the recent times, there has been sustained media campaign against the NDDC by a faceless integrity group, alleging the Commission was reeking in frauds, abandoned projects and low quality jobs.

    The NAPPDRR boss, whose organisation is committed to poverty alleviation, environmental rights protection and socio-economic empowerment for youths in Niger Delta, enjoined the civil society, especially the gullible youths, against being used as cannon fodder by politicians to achieve their political ambitions.

    He noted that the NDDC under Ekere has been doing its utmost to ensure most urban and community roads are fixed, while contractors who abandoned their jobs have been ordered to return to sites.

    “The current NDDC leadership is just few months in office and has been doing its best to ensure that tension is calmed in the region, but some faceless groups sponsored by political powers would not allow development to flow,” he stressed.

  • Community hails Buhari on kinsman’s NDDC job

    The people of Obibor Asa community in Ukwa West council area of Abia state have given kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari for making their son Chief Nwogu Nnah Nwogu a commissioner on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board.

    The people also expressed their thanks to Chief Ikechi Emenike for making it possible for their son to be nominated and presented to Mr President for appointment as NDDC commissioner.

    Speaking at Umukabia Ohuhu in Umuahia North council area of the state, the country home of Emenike during a thank you visit to him, the leader of the group, Mr Chinwe Uruakpa, an engineer, said that the present administration has wiped away their tears with the gesture.

    Uruakpa said that what President Buhari has done by appointing their son as one of the NDDC commissioners has put a stop to the suffering of their people which has been going on for several years.

    He explained that God in his mysterious ways used a man who they do not know (Chief Emenike) to make it possible for them to smile again, stressing that this man from nowhere decided to project their son despite all odds.

    The Obibor Asa leader said, “It is on that note that the entire people of Obibor Asa community left their homes to thank Chief Emenike for what God has used him to do for us even no one expected our so Nwogu to be the nominee”.

    “There were several people with better academic qualifications and the financial muscle who were lobbying for the position but you told us that you did not spend any money to place our son where he is right now”.

    “This wonderful gesture of yours has shown us that you love the people of Asa area of the state and we want to assure you that this good deed that you have done for us will not be forgotten and we will pay you back when the time and need arise” .

    In his own speech Anselm Eletuo the youth leader of the community said that they came to thank him for making the change mantra of the APC to come to their place when no one has ever remembered them in the scheme of things in the state.

    Eletuo said, “Sir if not for God using a person like you we would still be where we have been all these years as nobody would have remembered our place and son for such an appointment”.

    “We want to assure you of our total support in any endeavour you would want to venture into in future and also assure President Buhari of the support of our people at all times, we urged you to tell him not to relent in doing good for the people of the country”.

    “We had always insisted that the NDDC commissioner comes from our place as we produce 90% of the crude oil that makes the state to be a member of the NDDC states, yet we have never been reckoned with in the scheme of things in the state”.

    Responding, Emenike said that it is special blessing from God that when you go to a community one will be able to see good people like Nwogu who everyone will accept when an opportunity like this comes up.

    Emenike thanked the people for coming to appreciate his little effort in ensuring that their son is appointed into the board of NDDC, “But I would rather you thank and appreciate President Buhari who made it possible as I was only the facilitator and not the one who appointed him”.

    He reminded them that the law that established NDDC made it clear that appointments into their board should come from the oil producing community and not anybody from outside such community.

    The Abia APC leader said that Nwogu who is now a member of the NDDC board from the state deserved the appointment and that when the appointment issue came up that people Nwogu never believed that he would be nominated not to talk about appointing him.

    Emenike noted that during the lobbying time that many people who were not from the oil producing community, “Were brought to me to be presented to Mr President for the appointment, but I insisted that NDDC board member must come from Asa community”.

    He said, “When Nwogu came with a Prof to present to me I ask him why can’t he be appointed and he answered that he has only his school certificate and I told him that many people in the country are where they are today with less qualification”.

    “After he was nominated a lot of petitions came against him saying that he is nobody and I told them that the only qualification required for the appointment is that he hails from the oil producing community of Asa and that killed such petitions”.

    “I want to plead with the youths of Asa not to put too much pressure and to much expectations from him as he will not empower everyone at the same time, just give him time and all the wrongs will be corrected”.

    Emenike described Nwogu as a very humble man saying that he brought about four different people to him for consideration for the post be is right now occupying but I insisted that he must be the one for the post.

    The community presented Emenike with such gifts as crude oil, palm oil, a copy of the Bible and assorted drinks in appreciation of what he has done for them. They urged him to present the crude oil to Mr President as it is what comes from their area.

     

  • Militants unhappy, Niger Delta youths tell NDDC

    Militants unhappy, Niger Delta youths tell NDDC

    A group, Niger Delta Peace Campaign for Development Network (NDPCDN), has urged the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to fix another meeting where genuine militant leaders and former agitators will discuss the region’s issues with the commission.
    The group said the last meeting between the NDDC and militant leaders was a wrong engagement, a waste of time and resources.
    It added that some of those who paraded themselves as militant leaders were not.
    In a meeting yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, which lasted four hours, NDPCDN’s Leader Bussa Fullpower said the militants were unhappy about what transpired during the last meeting with the commission.
    Fullpower said it was because of the trust the group had in the Obong Esima Ekere-led board of the NDDC that spurred it to plead with the militants and ex-agitators to give the board more time to address their grievances.
    The youth leader said his group discovered the board did not examine some of the names of “militants” submitted to it before inviting them to a meeting.
    He noted that when the creek was tough, there were people who spearheaded a ceasefire to give the present administration a chance to develop the region.
    According to him, it will be wrong for the commission to consult the wrong people and abandon those who adhered to the ceasefire.
    Fullpower said: “During the jungle days, there were youths who held the region to ransom. Recently, when restiveness and bombing started, there were youths who the Federal Government bgged to give peace a chance. But today, most of these youths have been abandoned.
    “The last meeting between NDDC and the militant leaders confirmed why the militants are seriously angry. It is because they were not invited to the meeting. As a group of ex-militants seeking for peace in the region, we want NDDC to fix another meeting with this set of militants.
    “To be frank, the militants are confident that the Obong Ekere-led board will fast-track development in the region. It is on this singular reason that this organisation is moving from one state to another in to find a lasting solution.”

  • Giving NDDC its due

    It’s never easy to run anything in the Niger Delta, especially if that thing is the Niger Delta Development Commission. It is designed as the big elephant of development, but it has operated as a cash cow for the corrupt.

    One of its great pratfalls has been patronage, and there lies the challenge of the new management. The Managing Director, Nsima Ekere, showed knowledge when he declared recently in Ondo State, that the NDDC will break from its inept tradition of fattening patrons at the expense of development. This is part of his management breath of visionary fresh air of rejigging the behemoth. Ekere declared those words in rage at a contractor who shirked his responsibility over a hostel project.

    Hear the MD: “Henceforth, projects will no longer be awarded as political patronage. With measures being put in place, such incidents will not happen in the new NDDC.”

    That is the sort of cash cow that cripples development in the Niger Delta. A lot has been written about the exploitation and rot in governance in the region. The NDDC was a sort of massive intervention in the area. But it has been a story of lots of money and many more poor.

    That is the vision of Ekere and it is not helped by the Federal Government that has shirked its responsibility to make Ekere work.

    Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo recently asked NDDC contractors to go back to site, and it turned out that some of them need their money to complete their projects. In a letter to the Senate, the NDDC boss noted that since the vice-president’s order, the agency’s office has been besieged with contractors who have not yet been paid. Meanwhile, the Federal Government owes NDDC N1.8 trillion, a huge sum that can help transform many projects from incompletion to squeaky clean.

    Senator Udo Udoma reminded lawmakers that it is a matter of law that the agency should get its money under the NDDC Act of 2000. The new board should be given the opportunity to succeed or fail on its own vision rather than fail on the burden of debt. Many state governments have failed in the region from the mismanagement of so much money.

    The irony of too little money will inevitably create the same results. This puts Ekere in the middle of two forces. One is probity, where he wants to run the system with due diligence and integrity. Second, he needs money to make that work. One plus one equals success. But if NDDC does not get its due, the NDDC management could have an excuse to fail.

    In his letter to the Senate, Ekere noted that “the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan has not been properly implemented, as such there has been no systemic or sustainable development of the region and this is reflected in the low quality of infrastructure deliverables that decay rapidly, poor socio-economic development of the people, and pipeline vandalism which further exacerbates our funding challenges.”

    That is what he is up against. If we need a working NDDC, we need to listen to him.