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First, let me salute the courage and will of President Muhammadu Buhari for directing a forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). He has the backing of well-meaning people of the region on this. One other major Bull’s Eye scored by Buhari on matters of the oil-bearing region is the appointment of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Minister of Niger Delta. Beyond amounting to a political masterstroke, it tells of the genuine concern of the President to see the fortunes of the oil-bearing communities get better, not worse.
President Buhari said he was concerned that despite humungous amount expended through the NDDC in the region, not much has evidenced such huge spends. Reading the lips of the President, it is obvious that the dots do not connect in the NDDC expenditure on development with actuality on state of infrastructure in the region. Buhari is worried, genuinely so. Even more worried is Akpabio. As a former governor for eight years of a major Niger Delta state, Akwa Ibom, Akpabio knows what it means to bring development to a region that still stands out as the nation’s cash cow.
A majority of Niger Deltans believe that the appointment of Akpabio to head the ministry remains one of the best decisions of Buhari and a statement on the love of Mr. President for people of the region. They are right. President Buhari has in the past made some appointments that went awry because the appointees turned out to be the problem rather than the solution.
The appointment of Barrister Adebayo Shittu as Minister Communications during Buhari’s first tenure was a disaster. It was the crude case of asking a wholly analogue man to superintend the nation’s enabler of the digital economy. Then, there was the case of the appointment of Okoi Obono-Obla as Chairman, Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property. He was the man saddled with the responsibility of catching thieves who looted the nation but he too was one needing redemption. He had certificate issues bordering on forgery. A criminal case.
Not so, the case of Akpabio. He was the uncommon transformer of a civil-service state of Akwa Ibom into a tourist destination and exemplar of infrastructural development in the country. Under Akpabio, Uyo became a commercial beehive of the South-south. He was that good. He connected with his people, wrought development and kept uprising and upheavals that once rocked the region at bay. Akpabio is a man of strong will and bullish courage required of great leaders. In Akwa Ibom, he demonstrated that the wishes of the people are met when the leadership shows the will.
And he’s already evincing gutsy will in his new station. Watching him speak last week on Channels TV Politics Today rekindled my confidence that Buhari made the best choice after all. Akpabio just like Buhari was miffed that all is not well with the people of the Niger Delta region especially when consideration is made of their contribution to national development through the activities of oil prospecting companies and the attendant returns to national coffers. He said about 12,000 abandoned NDDC projects dot the Niger Delta landscape. This is not good for development. Abandonment of projects speaks of many things including lack of supervision or will by the awarding authority; lack of funding or outright criminality on the part of both the awarders and the awardees. And just the mere fact that an Akpabio is now in charge and obviously reading the body language of President Buhari who is not likely to gloss over the report of the forensic audit, a good 27 contractors have returned to sites. Akpabio had earlier described the NDDC as some people’s ATM. He would clarify this to mean that some people erroneously see the NDDC as a place where money grows as low-hanging fruits which they must pluck even before they are due for harvesting.
“Some people just collect money from the commission; they have no skill, no capacity for the job but they are awarded contracts and they pocket the money and disappear. We want those money to be accounted for. There must be an end to such situation.” To use his exact words: “I think people were treating the place as an ATM, where you just walk in there to go and pluck money and go away, I don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency.”
This is the mindset with which the ‘Uncommon Transformer’ is approaching his job. He is on the same page with President Buhari. He and the President believe that NDDC is too critical to be left without strict fiscal discipline and supervision. To be fair to Both Buhari and Akpabio, NDDC books deserve forensic attention. It really has not lived out its interventionist role. It has become a bazaar for some contractors and their partners within the commission from 2001 when it started operation to September 2019.
Nigerians have a right to know how money channeled through the Commission for development of the region was spent. It is money in trillions of naira sourced from the Federation Account and the oil companies doing businesses in the region.
Successive Nigerian governments have not helped matters. In the past there had been reported cases of missing money in the NDDC. Cases of inflated contracts, diverted funds, abandoned projects even after money was paid were rife.
In August 2015, the then Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), Samuel Ukura, categorically said that over N183 billion was missing from the accounts of the NDDC. The government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and top staff of the commission suppressed that report. NDDC in particular put up a media stunt to disparage the AGF and pooh-pooh his report. That report was dead on arrival. But not anymore. The carcass must be exhumed this time for the sake of public interest.
Lest we forget, the NDDC has a development masterplan based on a comprehensive analysis of the development, imperatives, challenges and opportunities in the Niger Delta area.
The masterplan pointedly stated that poverty was widespread in the area coupled with environmental hazards, sicknesses and other ills including high infant and maternal mortality all boosted by the despoliation of the environment by oil prospectors. Yet, this is a region rich in human and natural resources. Such cruel paradox was supposed to be mitigated by the NDDC. But has this happened in the past 18 years? The extant indicators suggest otherwise.
Akpabio has his job cut out. But given his pedigree as a grassroots mobiliser and development-centric leader plus support from President Buhari, he looks set to beget sanity in the NDDC and by extension bring uncommon transformation to the region that has for far too long suffered the paradox syndrome of suffering in the midst of plenty. What the NDDC needs now is an orientation of service for public good not for selfish gains. The minister and the new Interim Management Committee (IMC) must strike a synergy to beget a new order of selfless service delivery, accountability, probity and competence. Akpabio has a reputation of performance. He must not let it stumble on the slippery creeks of the Niger Delta.
