Special Correspondent, EMMA AYUNGBE, looks at the activities of the Bassey Dan-Abia management team in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in uplifting the Niger Delta region.
The need to address militancy in the Niger Delta region, which erupted in the region as a result of agitation for the development of the area, necessitated the establishment of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) 15 years ago by then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The commission has within the period embarked on construction of internal roads, classrooms in schools and provision of health services and many other people-oriented projects in the nine states it covers.
The recent appointment of Sir Bassey Dan-Abia, a lawyer and one time Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State, seems to have added verve to the activities of the agency. The Managing Director who was appointed by the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has brought to bear his outstanding experience as Akwa Ibom state representative in the Board of the Commission. In fact, by the last count, the Commission had completed and commissioned 19 abandoned and failed project across the nine member states.
Observers also note that in line with the master plan and the core mandate of the Commission as a veritable development intervention agency, the current leadership has recorded important milestone in providing critical infrastructure across the Niger Delta region.
Senior officials of the agency, for instance, told reporters that it has completed a prototype 500-capacity ultra-modern hostels in nine universities across the country to create a conducive learning environment and culture. This, according to them, is cardinal to educational and manpower development in the country.
They add that the commission also constructed some roads across the region, citing the instance of Mkpat Enin to Ete Junction Road, as well as several solar energy powered water projects in communities across the member states.
The Commission also lists capacity and entrepreneurship programmes for youth empowerment to create self-reliance and stimulate employment generation, among its feats.
TheNiche also learnt that NDDC, under Dan-Abia has extended micro credit and empowerment grants to 100 women in Akwa Ibom State under its sustainable development programme. This is aside construction of internal roads in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Imo and Edo states to open up the areas.
Statistics from the agency also indicated its provision of 500 KVA transformers to boost electricity supplies to several communities in the region and tertiary institutions, including Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and University of Uyo (UNIUYO) within the past 15 months of the current leadership.
Other development projects, it was gathered, are under way in the next couple of months, if funds of the commission, estimated at N700 billion is released by the federal government.
Inadequate funding by the federal government and administrative bottleneck, it has been argued, account for abandoned projects and unmet expectations in the states under the commission.
It was against this backdrop that the current Board of the NDDC headed by Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Chairman and Dan-Abia, as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, took over the leadership of the commission.
Fifteen months in office, admirers of the team, enthuse that far-reaching people-oriented projects and programmes have been conceived and executed by it to the admiration and satisfaction of communities in the region.
Speaking at a handover of the hostel facility built by the commission to the management of UNIUYO, Dan-Abia revealed that contract for the prototype hostel was awarded in 2004 but administrative lapses and other logistical problems had delayed its completion for almost 10 years.
Besides the UNIUYO hostel experience, he said that the current Board of the Commission inherited 19 abandoned or failed projects when it took over 15 months ago and immediately swung to action to ensure that they were completed and commissioned.
According to Dan-Abia, the Commission under the present management has within the same period completed nine hotels in various educational institutions in the Niger Delta.
The Managing Director, who used the occasion to announce the donation of a 500 KVA Generator to the community where the 500-bed UNIUYO hostel is sited, promised that the NDDC would continue to do more for the institution.
He stated that the NDDC is committed to completing all outstanding projects but constrained by inadequate funding, adding that the agency is passing through difficult times.
Vice-Chancellor of UNIUYO, Prof. (Mrs.) Comfort Ekpo, who spoke at the occasion, lauded Akwa Ibom State Government for donating the land upon which the hostel facility was built.
She appreciated the management of NDDC for donating the hostel facility to the university, hoping that the 2nd hostel project funded by the commission at the permanent site of the University would soon be completed and handed over.
Describing the prototype hostel facility for medical students of the University as a unique project, the VC said the facility would create employment, engender peace on campus as well as attract development to the host community and the state at large.
Ekpo noted that the NDDC has been a dependable ally in infrastructural development in the University, adding however that more needed to be done by the NDDC to take the institution to higher heights.
The Chairman of the Board, Henshaw also commended the Akwa Ibom State Government for providing the enabling environment and support for the NDDC to bring development to all sectors in the state.
He pledged commitment of the NDDC in intervening in critical areas of development, adding that Akwa Ibom is lucky to have the MD/CEO from the state.
In his comments, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, expressed delight at the commission’s gesture in providing the hostel facility to the university.
According to the governor who was represented by his deputy, Moses Ekpo, NDDC has been a dependable partner in the development of the state to the extent that it has become difficult to differentiate between state government projects and those from the commission.
On the 500-bed hostel for medical students, the governor said it was heart-warming and highly commendable for the NDDC to have provided the enabling environment for the training of medical doctors and professionals in allied fields.
He called on the FG to increase the allocation to the commission to enable it continue to complement the efforts of state governments in areas of critical infrastructure, healthcare, manpower development, education and poverty alleviation among others.
Joining the call for increased funding for the NDDC is a civil society activist, Al Mustapher Emem Edoho, who has urged the relevant authorities to disburse the sum of N700 billion approved for the commission by the federal government.
He said; “As a stakeholder in the Niger Delta and a civil society activist, it is my considered view that since funding of the NDDC is enshrined in the constitution, the National Assembly should review the Act to guarantee direct funding of the commission from the Federation Account to redress years of economic exploitation of the region by successive administration and in the spirit of true federalism”.
Edoho, who is the President of Children Strategy for Disaster Reduction Organisation, regretted that the inadequate funding of the commission has hindered it from meeting its mandate as an intervention agency in the Niger Delta region.
