Lagos—Anti-corruption group, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative (APTI), and renowned TV Analyst, Babajide Otitoju, have become the latest voices to lament the delay by President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the substantive board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), This day newspaper reports.
According to the stakeholders in their respective views, the current form of administration that obtains in the NDDC with interim management/sole administrator violates the NDDC Act establishing the Commission.
They noted that the interim management model deprives the nine constituent states of the Niger Delta region of fair and equitable representation in the running of NDDC.
Speaking on the TVC News magazine program, “Journalists’ Hangout”, Babajide Otitoju, said the delay in inaugurating the NDDC board shows that the government is not prepared to do anything about the reported ongoing corruption in NDDC.
According to Otitoju, “If we were prepared, by now we would have put a board in place just as the President (Buhari) had promised.
“By now a board would be in place. Why are we allowing Senator Akpabio to be running that place as if it belongs to him? He came up with the idea of Interim Management Committee (IMC) that is not known to the Act setting up the NDDC.
“He came up with it and he got away with it. Later on, he came up with the idea of a sole administrator. The sole administrator is from his state – Akwa Ibom, he as Minister (Niger Delta affairs) is from the same Akwa Ibom state, and the Presidential aide (Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari) on Niger Delta, Senator Ita Enang is also from Akwa Ibom.
“So other Niger Delta states are effectively shut out of the running of the place (NDDC).”
He continued, “President Buhari promised to get the board inaugurated. That promise has not been kept. So why are you surprised that we are hearing this kind of story from NDDC?”
On the ongoing probe of the NDDC by the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate, Otitoju stated that the legislative arm should rather be pushing President Buhari to implement the recommendations of its (Senate) probe of NDDC in June/July 2020, which indicted the then illegal IMC, and recommended the inauguration of a substantive board for the commission.
Babajide Otitoju further urged President Buhari to implement the recommendations of the Senate in the June/July 2020 probe of NDDC, saying that the recommendations are good enough to be implemented
Otitoju recalled the scandals in the National assembly probe of IMC in June/July 2020, and after that, “Akpabio, knowing that particular interim management committee (IMC) has been blotted, has been disgraced, has been discredited before Nigerians, he then did the fast thing to go again to get Presidential approval to have a Sole Administrator.
“Again they (President Buhari) pandered to him and allowed him to have a sole administrator, and he has refused to inaugurate the Board. So whatever happened to the fight against corruption?”
Similarly, Head, Directorate of Research and Strategy, of the Act for Positive Transformation Initiative (APTI), Mr. Kolawole Johnson questioned the delay in constituting the commission’s board, drawing comparisons with other interventionist commissions in the country.
He said, “You have the North East Development Commission (NEDC) today functioning with a Board in place; NNPC has been accused of corruption, yet today functioning with a proper board in place.
“So you ask, what exactly has made the case of NDDC different that they have refused to inaugurate a substantive board even though is what the law states.”
According to him, the current leadership system in the NDDC is faulty, stressing that what obtains in the commission presently is a man show with no checks.
“When you have a board in place, there are benefits. The entire nine states of the Niger Delta region are supposed to be represented, one per state, and then you have the oil companies themselves who are supposed to have one representative on the board, being the ones providing the largest funds to run this Commission.
“Today none of them is there. You just have one man, a sole administrator, controlled by the Minister of Niger Delta, and whatsoever they sign goes.
“There is no check, nobody is checking,(there is no executive director of projects, no executive director of finance), only one person (sole administrator) is the one currently approving, he is the one supervising, he is the one monitoring, he is the one procuring, and he is the one paying.
“This is the height of fraud. Why is it that the President is refusing to inaugurate the board and yet allow few persons to feast on the resources of the Niger Delta people? he stated”
Otitoju and Johnson, therefore, enjoined President Buhari to inaugurate the NDDC Board per the law – the NDDC Act, and in fulfillment of his promise, and so ensure equitable representation of the nine constituent states, and thereby guarantee proper corporate governance, accountability, probity, checks, and balances in administering the Commission.
