By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Spaces for Change, a non-governmental organisation has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to disband the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for its notoriety in wasting public resources.
A statement signed by the executive director of the organisation, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, said such wastage was the reason for the endemic poverty and underdevelopment in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The statement said it is mind-boggling hearing the kind of corruption tales which senior officials of the NDDC have been involved in.
Ibezim-Ohaeri noted that the profligacy was so brazen to the extent that between January and May, 2020 alone, about N81.5 billion spent by the NDDC’s interim management could not be properly accounted for.
“In the last few weeks, the electronic and print media, including a sea of social media sites have been deluged with screaming headlines detailing how NDDC officials splashed obscene amounts of money on ridiculous expenses like Lassa fever, condolences, imprest, maintenance etc.
“Although international borders have been closed since March 2020 when the index case of coronavirus was discovered in Nigeria, NDDC officials claim a whooping sum of N85.6Million (USD220,000) was expended on foreign travel between January to May 2020.
“None of these expenditures align with the agency’s overarching functions which include regional policy formulation and implementation, environmental remediation, execution of development projects such as the construction of roads, jetties health centers, schools, industries, agriculture and fisheries, housing, water supply, electricity and so forth,” she said.
Spaces for Change said despite the billions allocated to the NDDC to uplift the economic life of the people living in the oil producing states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Ondo, Imo and Abia states, their inhabitants remain among those living under the weight of crushing poverty.
“The chronic underdevelopment of the region starkly contrasts with over $40bn (N15 trillion) of NDDC receipts since inception. As officials divert public funds into their personal pockets, the scholarship tuition of NDDC beneficiaries enrolled in numerous foreign educational institutions remains unpaid, leaving indigenes of the region studying abroad in great want and difficulty.
“With healthcare infrastructure absent in most of the region’s hard-to-reach riverine communities, malaria remains the number one cause of mortality and morbidity in the area. Child mortality for this region is 200 per 1000 per year.
“For the people of the Niger Delta, the odds are heavily stacked against them. Disempowered by decades of poverty and neglect, they are unable to hold erring leaders and institutions accountable. Too many officials, including regulatory institutions responsible for ensuring probity in the region’s affairs, have all been linked to the festival of sleaze.
“Shocking revelations emerging from the public hearing conducted by federal legislative committees—of both the Senate and the House of Representatives—showed how NDDC officials, with the tacit connivance of federal legislators raped the region’s resources with impunity.
“The Committee also found that NDDC contracts worth over N67Billion were never executed. The lawmakers of both the Senate and House were not only indicted, but also, accused of ‘hijacking’ the commission’s budgets over the years, and appropriating most of the agency’s over-bloated contracts to themselves,” Spaces for Change said in the statement.
Spaces for Change added that the Niger Delta minister, Godswill Akpabio, charged with the supervisory responsibility for the NDDC’s affairs has also been named in a chain of fraudulent activities.
Ibezim-Ohaeri explained that even the establishment of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in 2003 has neither discouraged financial recklessness, nor deterred officials from embezzling funds set aside for the socio-economic development of the region.
“Poorly-regulated petroleum exploration and production activities by oil multinational corporations continue to unleash the mayhem of pollution, environmental degradation, total or partial destruction of vegetation in many locations, destroying the peoples’ ability to live and make a livelihood.
“From one oil-producing state to another, oil companies operating in the region have carried on their oil extraction operations without regard for the health of the local communities: flaring gas, disposing toxic wastes into the air, the subsoil and local waterways in violation of applicable national and international environmental standards. There have been little or no consequences for these violations.
“After several years of lull in violence and considerable peace in the region, it is clear that the multiple grievances that triggered the violent conflict of the late 90s, necessitating the establishment of the NDDC, have remained largely unmet. The latest revelations, if unpunished and stolen monies unrecovered, could pave way for the resumption of militancy activities in the region, with disastrous consequences for the country’s oil output and revenue earnings.
“A coherent, holistic and people-focused intervention is now necessary to prevent surging local discontent from rising to a level that would be too difficult to repair. It is on this premise that SPACES FOR CHANGE [S4C) is calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to: 1. Immediately relieve the current minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godswill Akpabio, of his duties, pending the outcome of the investigations of alleged misfeasance in public office, particularly involving fraudulent handling of NDDC contract deals.
“2. Immediately disband the 5-member Interim Management Committee (IMC), and reconstitute the board of the Commission as stipulated by law. The IMC’s theatrical displays at the parliamentary hearings coupled with their continuing inability to account for N81.5 billion spent between January to May 2020, casts a strong shadow of doubt on their moral and professional capability to hold public office.
“3. Direct the EFCC to immediately launch an independent probe into NDDC contracts, especially abandoned projects and projects awarded and paid for, but not executed from 2015 till date. Indicted contractors should be prosecuted with the aim of recovering and remitting all misappropriated funds into the Commission’s coffers.
“4.Investigate allegations of hijack of NDDC budgets and preferential contract awards to serving public officers and federal lawmakers, with a view to identifying, naming, prosecuting and bringing all indicted persons to book.
“5.Recognizing that oil revenues, including NDDC budgets have been grossly mismanaged and distributed inequitably, FG is urged to consider an alternative benefit-sharing regime that prioritizes communities’ choice, capabilities, and agency, through legal guarantees of the pre-eminent rights of communities to approve or veto NDDC projects. Any new benefit-sharing framework considered must establish robust grievance mechanisms that are accessible to communities and linked directly to NDDC project performance.
“6.Set up an independent 10-man civil society project monitoring unit attached to the NDDC, comprised of reputable traditional rulers, civil society leaders, women and youth movements operating in the region, with the responsibility of maintaining active relationships built on trust with communities, carrying out participatory baseline studies of the community’s socioeconomic priorities and providing advisory opinion to the NDDC board during the appraisal and evaluation processes of proposed and completed projects respectively,” Spaces for Change said.