After almost four years of delay, the federal government recently inaugurated the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The new board has Lauretta Onochie, a former aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, as its chairman, and Samuel Ogbukwu as managing director.
Indeed, the recent appointment of a new board for the NDDC is a welcome development for the people of the Niger Delta region, who have long suffered from neglect and underdevelopment.
The NDDC was established in 2000 with the mandate to accelerate the development of the region, which is rich in oil and gas resources but has remained one of the poorest and most underdeveloped areas of Nigeria.
However, the NDDC has been plagued by a lack of transparency and accountability, as well as allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Sadly, over the years the commission has become a cash cow for politicians. As a result, the commission has failed to achieve its mandate and the people of the Niger Delta have continued to live in poverty and deprivation.
In the considered opinion of this newspaper, the new board, therefore, has a monumental task ahead of it. It must restore the integrity of the NDDC and ensure that it is able to deliver on its mandate to accelerate the development of the region.
First, the new board should improve transparency and accountability in the activities of the commission. The NDDC must be open and transparent in its operations, and the new board must ensure that the interventionist agency is accountable to the people it serves. This will require the commission to publish regular reports on its activities and to be open to public scrutiny.
Secondly, the NDDC has been plagued by allegations of corruption; financial recklessness and contract scam became synonymous with the commission. This state of affairs just cannot continue.
We recall that in 2021, the attorney-general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, had disclosed that the commission had over 13,000 poorly executed and unverified projects despite N6trillion allocation it received from 2001 to 2019.
The president had in August 2019 ordered the forensic audit of the agency, in response to what the AGF described as “the yearnings of the people the Niger Delta region to reposition it for effective service delivery”.
Needless to say, the new board must take strong measures to root out any corrupt practices within the commission. This will require the board to put in place effective systems for monitoring and reporting fraud and to take action against any officials found to be involved in corrupt activities.
No doubt, corruption continues to fester in the commission because there has not been adequate punishment for corrupt officials. We insist that to resolve the issue of corruption in NDDC, people must go to jail.
Also, the new board must ensure that the NDDC is focused on delivering real benefits to the people of the Niger Delta. This will require the commission to prioritise projects that will have a direct impact on the lives of the people, such as infrastructure development, education and healthcare.
Indeed, the new board of the NDDC has a huge responsibility to ensure that the commission is able to deliver on its mandate and improve the lives of the people of the Niger Delta. This is the very reason the agency was set up in the first place.
The people of the region have been waiting for decades for real change and development, and the new board must not disappoint them. It is time for the NDDC to live up to its mandate and to become a catalyst for the development of the Niger Delta.
Consequently, the new NDDC board has a huge task ahead of it, but it is also an opportunity to turn the commission around and to deliver real benefits to the people of the Niger Delta.
The new board members must not consider their appointment as an opportunity to amass wealth or see their appointment as their own ‘national cake’ – a euphemism for diverting public funds to private use. The people of the Niger Delta have waited long enough for real change, and it is now time for the NDDC to deliver it.
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