I Regret Persuading Obasanjo to Establish NDDC, Says Oyofo

*Describes commission as ‘cesspit of corruption’

Kayode Fasua
Senator Kassim Oyofo has expressed regrets that he was instrumental to the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Oyofo, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was a member
of the fourth and fifth National Assembly.

He expressed these concerns during an interview with THISDAY at the weekend.
He said he was astonished, discovering that the commission, now a cesspit of corruption, had killed the dream of its founding fathers.

He said that he regretted initiating the move in the first place.

At the senate, the septuagenarian served on the Senate Committee on the Environment as Vice Chairman and was at different times a member of Senate Committees on Petroleum, Solid Minerals, Police Affairs, Commerce and Niger Delta

At the session with THISDAY, Oyofo noted that he prevailed upon the former president “to establish the NDDC. It is the only Act since 1960 that was passed by veto. If you understand what that means: 95 votes to two.

“When I look back today, I always regret that I supported the passage of the NDDC Act. I should have agreed with Obasanjo not to bring the amendments I put into the Act, because the whole thing is now a cesspit of corruption.”

According to him, all the grand aims intended for improved living conditions for the Niger Delta people, through the formation of the NDDC, have been thrown overboard by a succession of corrupt leaders at the commission.

“People like the former President of the Senate, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo (of blessed memory), who made it possible for us to pass the Act would be in his grave to see the corruption that had taken over the commission.

“I have never gone there to take anything from them. I do not want anything from them. We had hoped they would, at least, improve the lot of their people. Contrary to its mandate, the NDDC is now a cesspit of corruption. The worst corruption that you can imagine takes place there.”

Oyofo, however, heaped the blame on the National Assembly, explaining that the current lawmakers “are lame duck and have shown incompetence in discharging their oversight functions.”

He said he was shocked recently to watch the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, “kneeling down for President Buhari. Does he not know that he was degrading the institution of the legislature?

“That is why you cannot compare the National Assembly of our time with the one of today; because, it’s like day and night, ” he said.

Oyofo, also, counselled the federal government to reconsider the recommendation in the 2014 National Confab under former President Goodluck Jonathan, which centred around the restructuring of Nigeria.

He said the recommendation “will go a long way in promoting justice and assuaging frayed nerves among ethnic nationalities. The main recommendation (of the confab) is that the government should champion restructuring Nigeria along zonal lines, so that they can contribute to the existence of the centre.

“That is what is called federation. Nigeria is not a federation; it’s like a unitary government that is not even honest,” the PDP chieftain pointed out.