By Ehichioya Ezomon
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is reportedly a cesspool of corruption where the major business of the day for the management is the award of contracts, many of them “fathom” in nature.
It’s the reason there’re tens of thousands of uncompleted and abandoned projects in the nine oil-producing states, loosely refer to as the Niger Delta, which traditionally comprises six states.
Take, for instance, the revelation that “a serving senator is single-handedly handling about 300 contracts” for the NDDC, with 120 of the contracts “fully paid for.” But is there evidence of any of the jobs partially or wholly executed?
Where such “evidence” exists, and “certificates of completion” obtained therein, the jobs are poorly done, as it takes a few weeks or months to reveal their shoddiness. And why not?
How can an individual, no matter their expertise, equipment outlay, and the number of companies they control, secure a large number of contracts from a single entity? That’s corruption at its zenith!
This disclosure by the Acting Executive Director of Projects of the NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, maybe a tip of the iceberg. There might be thousands of similar contracts, also fully paid for, but not executed, partially executed or poorly executed.
What about a contract awarded for the clearing of water hyacinths, and de-silting of the riverine areas, valued at N2.5 billion, which suddenly rose to about N65 billion? How, when and who reviewed the contract upward?
No wonder the NDDC is said to be saddled with over N3 trillion debt owed to contractors for obligations they may not have accomplished in compliance with the contract terms!
Hence, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a forensic audit of the commission, for which a three-man Interim Management Committee (IMC) was constituted pending the inauguration of a new management board.
At a meeting with governors of oil-producing states at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on October 17, 2019, Buhari noted that the humongous amount pumped into the interventionist agency since 2001 did not match the projects on the ground.
His words: “With the amount of money that the Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues.
“The projects said to have been done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so much billions and when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done.” He said he would wait for the report of the audit, to decide on the next line of action regarding the commission.
Even before its take-off, the audit is facing a barrage of criticisms from individuals and groups in the oil-producing states, who should ordinarily be happy and embrace a process to cleanse the Augean stables (rid the NDDC of corruption).
The agitators question the “legality” of constituting the IMC, when a new management board had been named (and cleared by the Senate), and canvass the sacking of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
To them, Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, is responsible for the transfer of the NDDC from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, and the empanelling of a forensic audit and an IMC for the commission.
But this is picking on a soft target, as the latest spotlight on the NDDC is at the behest of President Buhari, notwithstanding whether he had any advice from a third party to that effect.
Actually, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, as head of the governors’ delegation to the president, expressed his counterparts’ disappointment with the operations of the NDDC.
The commission’s operations had been characterised by “poor choice of projects, shoddy handling, uncompleted jobs and lack of required support for the efforts of the states and local governments in its areas of coverage,” Dickson said, and solicited Buhari’s repositioning of the commission “in order to achieve the objectives for which it was set up.”
So, attacking Akpabio (the messenger), and dissing the audit panel and the management committee (the message) shows one thing: Corruption, in and outside the NDDC, is fighting back.
As in the larger society where the anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration is resisted by alleged looters, the orchestrators of the campaign to stop the audit are those that have questions to answer on the reported sleaze at the commission.
And in the manner of politically-exposed persons (PEPs) when confronted with their financial malfeasance; the opposers of the audit have embarked on a well-oiled media campaign to taint the investigation, and those they perceive as its drivers.
That’s why Akpabio has become the target of attacks, as having accusingly, in addition to the audit, “instigated” the transfer of the NDDC from the office of the SGF to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, and the setting up of the IMC.
But the senator couldn’t have accomplished what are credited to him without the approval of President Buhari, who appoints, and delegates powers/functions to him as a minister.
It’s calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. And that process has begun with the allegation that Akpabio received some billions from the former Managing Director of the NDDC, Nsima Ekere.
Thus, his accusers are “putting two-and-two together” to get at him, for his possible sack, which, indeed, they have implored President Buhari to do immediately.
Note the agitators’ strategy: Attack Akpabio and “his Interim Management Committee,” so as to divert attention, muddy the terrain, and prevent the audit from holding or shoddily handled.
They know that if thoroughly carried out, the audit would open a can of worms, the type Akpabio spoke about recently, thereby stirring the hornet’s nest that’s turned back to haunt him.
Fielding questions on an NTA programme, Akpabio said that some people in the NDDC had stalled the infrastructural development goals of the Niger Delta, to enrich themselves.
“I think people were treating the place as an ATM, where you just walk in, to go and pluck money and go away. I don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency,” he said.
“Even the idea of giving out a job to somebody, who does not have the requisite skills, is corruption on its own. The idea of bloating the contract is also corruption. Even collecting money and abandoning the site is also corruption.”
The watching public can see where the attacks on Akpabio are coming: From those that have benefitted from the multi-billion fraud in the NDDC. They’re the ones fighting back!
- Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
