The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has often been described as a citadel of monumental corruption. This is because of the institutional malfeasance, financial profligacy, and administrative recklessness of successive boards and management team. It is one agency of government that has been riddled with controversy because of the vested interest of powerful stakeholders from the region.
Perhaps an excuse can be made for the management team led by Chief Ndutimi Alaibe when he held sway as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. It was during his time that the agency had some sort of respect and admiration owing to his purposeful leadership and the kind of corporate governance structure that was put in place. After his exit, all that ended.
The appointment of Chief Samuel Ogbuku as the new boss of the agency was widely applauded. It was seen as a new dawn for the interventionist agency, and frankly speaking, he started well in his pursuit for a better and prosperous Niger Delta. But in the last few weeks, we have seen a reverse.
Under Ogbuku, the NDDC is now derailing. It has become so discombobulated that if it continues in its new trajectory, one may be forced to believe that Ogbuku is just a chip off the old block and that the NDDC is cursed. The level of the agency's descent to abyss is nothing short of being disgraceful and a mockery of the people of the region.
Recently, the agency laid the foundation for the building of a place of worship for Christians working there or coming to bid for contracts. At the event, Ogbuku told the gathering that the auditorium is aimed at catering for the spiritual needs of staff and worshippers at the NDDC Headquarters.
The Samuel Ogbuku led NDDC has also unveiled plans to build a staff club house. At the unveiling, the NDDC boss said the place will serve as a recreational center for the commission's workforce to ease their tension and rejuvenate in the course of serving the people of the region. According to him, It will also facilitate the bonding of the staff into a united family to be working harmoniously.
The most recent of the NDDC'S missteps is the executive management conference for all Niger Delta ethnic nationalities, youth, and women groups. The frivolous event took place barely two weeks after a stakeholders summit that was organized with alleged billions of naira. The conference was to rally support for the embattled Bola Tinubu's administration and to ask people of the region not to participate in the nationwide hardship protest. Again, the scarce billions of naira meant to carry out key developmental projects for the region must have been spent.
We have gone through the Act establishing the NDDC, and there was nowhere it was stated that the commission will engage in spiritual or social needs of its staff under whatever guise. That is not part of its core function. Ogbuku and his management team are clearly overreaching themselves, spending monies meant for the development of the poverty-stricken region on inanities.
This absurdity needs to stop. The mandate of the NDDC as an interventionist agency must not be subverted. Ogbuku should remain focused and use the resources that have been allocated to the commission to expand the scholarship scheme of the NDDC, to invest more on the reintroduced medical outreach Programme, partner the State governments in the region to establish a regional strategic reserve and power plants, carry out repairs of the damaged sections of the east west road and other very important initiatives in accordance with the set rules and regulations for projects and programmes as contained in the Act.
It is only then that sustainable development of the Niger-Delta region can be guaranteed. Ogbuku should not allow the greed and insatiable financial appetite of people who over the years have been using the NDDC as their personal Automated Teller Machine (ATM )to committ him to make grievous mistakes that will taint future opportunities that awaits him.
He needs to be reminded that his so-called masters will abandon him like they abandoned some of his predecessors. His interest should always and only be the interest of the people of the Niger Delta.
