The new NDDC board

THE members of the new governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were
recently screened and confirmed by the Senate. Also,
the House of Representatives has urged the NDDC to
protect and secure the aquatic and terrestrial habitat
of communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The
Lower House, through a motion on notice sponsored
by Philip Agbese, enjoined the NDDC board to ensure
the inclusion of host communities in the operation
and management of the oil value chain.

In August this year, President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu approved the appointment of a new
board and management of the NDDC with
Chiedu Ebie (Delta) as the chairman and
Samuel Ogbuku (Bayelsa) as the managing
director, respectively. The President had
then charged the board and management
team to ensure a new era of successful ad- ministration in the NDDC, in line with his
Renewed Hope agenda.
Now that the members of NDDC board
have been screened and confirmed by the
Senate, they should work as a team to fulfill
the vision and mission of the intervention
agency, as enunciated in its establishing Act.
Before the coming of the new board, the
story of the NDDC has been one of inces- sant corruption, unconscionable sleaze and
abuse of office by those that managed it. At a
particular time, the agency was regarded as
a conduit pipe for unscrupulous politicians
to siphon government’s revenue. These
politicians see the agency as their personal
automated teller machines (ATM) through
which they defraud government of billions
of naira. The new NDDC board, which is
long overdue, must hit the ground running.
There is no time to waste. The job of the
board is clearly defined in its establishing
Act. It should not deviate from its set goals.
The NDDC was established by the Presi- dent Olusegun Obasanjo administration on
June 5, 2000, with the mandate of develop- ing the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Its estab- lishment was in response to the yearnings of
the people of the Niger Delta, an area mainly
inhabited by diverse minority ethnic groups,
including the Ijaw and the Ogoni.
In the 1990s, the people of the Niger Delta
had confronted the Nigerian government
and multinational oil companies in the re- gion with demands for greater autonomy
and control of oil resources on account of
the environmental degradation and pollu- tion from oil exploration in the region since
the late 1950s. However, such demands for
environmental protection and provision of
social amenities had often led to avoidable violent confrontations with dire conse- quences to the oil companies and the host
communities. It was in a bid to arrest the deteriorating
situation that government established the

NDDC to address the concerns of the oil-
bearing communities in the region. The

commission has the mandate to improve
the social and environmental conditions
in the Niger Delta. From 2001 to 2019, the
commission had received N6 trillion from
the federal government. Despite the huge
allocations, the NDDC has failed to improve
the environmental and social conditions of
the people of the region.
We urge the new board not to toe the path
of the previous boards that neglected the
development of the Niger Delta region. The
board should ensure transparency in the
award of contracts and execution of proj- ects. There is need for proper supervision
of the projects to ensure that they meet the
set standard. The NDDC board should work
hard to develop the region. Social amenities
must be provided for the oil-bearing com- munities as it is the practice elsewhere in
the world.
The story of our own oil-producing re- gion should not be different. The governors
of the oil-bearing states are called upon to use the money accruing from oil derivation
to develop the oil-bearing communities or
the host communities. Let the new NDDC
board use dialogue to settle the ongoing
rancor among oil communities over the
contract for securing oil pipelines in the
region.
We also believe that the communities
can make some input on how to tackle the
intractable oil theft in the region. Let the
NDDC use the money allocated to it to
address the challenges of the oil-bearing
communities through its intervention pro- grammes.
Above all, the communities should be car- ried along in the execution and supervision
of these projects. The new NDDC board
must curb the rot in the agency.