By Joe Ezuma
Assistant Editor, South South
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is revving up its machinery to actualise its mandate of bringing sustainable development to oil bearing states.
The NDDC faces criticism from dissatisfied stakeholders, communities, contractors, and sections of the press.
But it counters that it has achieved a lot since it was constituted, only that it has not been advertising its achievements on the pages of newspapers.
Partnership forum
To buttress that position, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has flagged off the NDDC Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) forum in Port Harcourt to signify a shift in strategy.
PSD is a forum for stakeholders, UNITA, USAID, multinationals, contractors, consultants, and security agencies, as well as a sounding board for the NDDC.
Osinbajo, represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency, Adeola Ipaye, described the theme of the forum, “Restrategising Development Concepts in the Niger Delta Region to Provide for Post-Oil Wealth Socio-economic Sustainability”, as strategic and apt, considering the global decline in oil revenue.
He said the inauguration of the forum comes at a time the implementation of the new globally adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is about to begin, and expressed the government’s commitment to upgrading the Niger Delta.
“Realising the concept of sustainable development comes with numerous challenges, especially in the Niger Delta region that represents the world’s third largest wetlands, with several years of unaddressed oil pollution issues that have hindered agricultural growth of the region as well as affected the general health of the populace,” Osinbajo added.
He expressed the need to intensify activities in the rural areas to improve socio-economic well-being through agriculture and rural enterprises, and provide access to markets by improving road networks and value chain development.
Poor funding
NDDC Managing Director, Bassey Dan-Abia, cited poor funding as one of the challenges even though he stressed that the NDDC should not be seen as an alternate government.
He urged the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company to contribute its funding to the NDDC and urged Niger Delta youths to stop restiveness as the NDDC does not have the capacity to solve all their problems.
Dan-Abia acknowledged some missteps of the previous management but stressed that the NDDC has returned to the implementation of the Niger Delta Development Master Plan which places emphasis on partnership.
Projects
Since the new NDDC management was constituted three years ago, it has addressed education, housing, and food security; but stakeholders are demanding investments that create wealth.
The NDDC recently commissioned an apartment complex of 44 chalets it built for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
The project is meant to ensure the comfort and security of corps members and to sustain the interest of youths in education in the nine NDDC states.
Dan-Abia promised that the NDDC will complete all projects because ”we are conscious of the change philosophy of President Muhammad Buhari’s administration and we have up dated our achievements because we have something to show.
”The NDDC had metamorphosed from an agency that is determined to make a difference, to one that is making the difference.
“We are now a new transformational NDDC with a more cohesive and inclusive leadership, reaching far beyond the component states and always ready to collaborate with willing partners.”
He recalled that the previous NDDC management built only one university hostel out of 19 planned, but the current one has built many across the region.
However, complaints of poor performance and ineptitude are still levelled at the NDDC.
Complaints by Imo, Bayelsa
In his goodwill message to the inauguration of the PSD forum, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, decried the minimal presence of the NDDC in the state and urged it to establish people-oriented projects in Imo.
In April, Bayelsa State government set up a committee to take stock of NDDC projects and it discovered that about 553 are on-going, completed, or abandoned in the state.
Bayelsa complained that the NDDC failed to identify contractors who did not carry out their projects.