Follow Us on Google
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Sole Administrator, Effiong Akwa, has come under attack by Niger Delta Peoples’ Forum (NDPF) for “indicating his intention to administer the 2021 and 2022 budgets of the commission, in contravention of the NDDC Act.
This is coming at a time the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, is making a firm commitment to push for the inauguration of the NDDC’s substantive board “without further delay,”
According to a story in a national Newspaper of March 12, 2022, titled “NDDC Pleads more time for refund of Eastern Bypass road construction counterpart funds to Rivers State govt.,” Effiong Akwa was quoted as saying the commission would remit its counterpart fund “as soon as its 2022 budget is released,” stating that “NDDC’s counterpart fund…is already captured in the 2022 budget.”
The group described this attempt as a “surreptitious guile by an illegal sole administrator contraption that is not known to the law, NDDC Act, to attempt to further administer the commission’s funds, elongate the abuse of the NDDC Act with the ongoing illegality of a sole administrator who is not in any way representative of the nine constituent states, and has continued to carry on without regard for due process.”
Chief Boma Ebiakpo, National Chairman of NDPF urged Buhari to “resist attempts by certain officials in his government to goad him into further acts of illegality in administering NDDC by not transmitting the 2021 and 2022 Budgets of NDDC to the National Assembly until the inauguration of a substantive NDDC board because doing otherwise is further breach of the law governing NDDC.”
According to the group, this underscores the Senate President’s recently re-stated commitment to push for abidance with the law, the NDDC Act of Parliament, when he announced that “now that the forensic audit is over, we should have the NDDC run properly. Let there be full-fledged management and the governing board so that our people in the Niger Delta will continue to get the attention that made the NDDC to be established in the first place.”
Ebiakpo alerted stakeholders that Effiong Akwa is “apparently testing the waters again after his failed attempt earlier this year when, at a time the National Assembly was on break, the NDDC Sole Administrator surreptitiously met with a joint session of the National Assembly committees on Niger Delta Affairs to attempt to embark upon another cycle of illegality preparatory to consider an NDDC 2021 budget (which is yet to be transmitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari) to be defended by an illegal sole administrator contraption that is alien to the NDDC Act, the law governing the operations of the commission.”
“In what is certain to cause outrage in the Niger Delta region that is already agitated over the delay in inaugurating a substantive board, in compliance with the law, this renewed affront on the sensibilities of Niger Deltans is another gamble taken too far,” NDPF cautioned.
The group further stated that the NDDC Act which explicitly states how the commission is to be governed is clear on the process for the approval of NDDC annual Budget by the National Assembly. In Part V, 18(1) it states that “the Board shall, in each year, submit to the National Assembly through the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces an estimate of the expenditure and income of the Commission during the next succeeding year for approval.” NDPF also pointed out that the NDDC Act also stipulates that the Board and management (comprising the MD and two EDs) shall be appointed by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, subject to the confirmation of the Senate.
Ebiakpo regretted that in the past two years, the Commission has been “administered in breach of the law through illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions administering a total of N799 Billion approved budgets by the National Assembly for the 2019 and 2020 financial years. To the detriment of the entire region, these illegal interim contraptions/sole administrator contraptions have been fleecing the NDDC of its funds in the last two years. The 2020 Financial year for NDDC’s budget as approved by the National Assembly expired on December 31, 2021.”
According to Ebiakpo, “rather than continue the illegality of administering NDDC with a sole administrator contraption that is not known to the NDDC Act, we urge President Buhari to halt the ongoing charade at NDDC, abide by the law and inaugurate a substantive governing board for NDDC to ensure proper corporate governance, checks and balances, probity, accountability, and equitable representation of the nine constituent states that have endured two years of the Commission being run like a personal fiefdom.”
The group also stated that in tandem with the legitimate aspirations of a wide spectrum of Niger Delta stakeholders, and in compliance with the law, the NDDC Act, President Buhari should inaugurate the substantive Board of the Commission before transmitting the 2021 and 2022 budgets of NDDC to the National Assembly.
According to NDPF, the President will also be keeping to his promise to inaugurate the board after the forensic audit. President Buhari promised the nation on the 24th day of June 2021, while receiving the Ijaw National Congress (INC) at the State House in Abuja that the NDDC Board would be inaugurated as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted.
Ebiakpo recalls that the President said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled 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.”
The group regrets that the report of the forensic audit of NDDC has since been submitted by Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to President Buhari on September 2, 2021, but seven months after submission of the forensic audit report, the President is yet to fulfill his own promise.
NDPF also drew attention that “it is in breach of the NDDC Act for the current sole administrator or anyone else to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through the legal requirement of appointment as stipulated in the NDDC Act.” The group stated that it therefore “aligns with other Niger Delta authentic stakeholders to reject in its entirety the reported renewed attempt by the Sole Administrator of NDDC, Effiong Akwa, to seek to illegally administer the 2021 and 2022 budgets of NDDC (which is yet to be transmitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari) when the sole administrator position is unknown to the law setting up NDDC.”
Ebiakpo noted that presently, “the illegal NDDC Sole Administrator singularly acts as the Managing Director, the Executive Director of Finance and Administration, and Executive Director of Projects, with no accountability, checks and balances, proper corporate governance, and probity in administering the commission.”
Niger Delta Peoples’ Forum therefore urged President Buhari to “halt the ongoing breach of the law governing the operation of the commission, the unfortunate disregard for the rule of law, and hearken to the unending calls, demands and peaceful agitations of youths, men and women, political and traditional leaders and civil society organisations for the inauguration of the board of NDDC.” This, according to the group will “ensure compliance with the NDDC Act, promote and sustain peace, equity and fairness, transparency and accountability, good governance, rapid development and transformation of the Niger Delta Region.”
