Group Commends Senate President, Seeks Inauguration of NDDC Board

 The Niger Delta Peoples’ Forum (NDPF) has commended the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, for rising to the occasion to ensure compliance with the law, the NDDC Act, in administering the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), by stating the Senate’s readiness to work and ensure the inauguration of the Commission’s substantive Board “without further delay.” According to a story in The Sun Newspaper of Monday, March 7, 2022 entitled “Senate set to deal with NDDC situation –Lawan,” the Senate President was quoted as saying that “we should also deal with the situation in the NDDC. It is long overdue. This is one interventionist agency that should be run much more efficiently. 

“I believe now that the forensic audit is over, we should have the NDDC run properly. Let there be full-fledged management and the governing board so that our people in the Niger Delta will continue to get the attention that made the NDDC to be established in the first place.” NDPF therefore urged the Senate President to galvanise the National Assembly, as part of their constitutionally guaranteed oversight function, to ensure that the NDDC Board is inaugurated without further delay. According to Chief Boma Ebiakpo, National Chairman of the group, by insisting on compliance with the law setting up NDDC, the NDDC Act, the Senate is assured that lasting and befitting legacy for the President Buhari administration and the Ahmad Lawan-led 9th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not be tainted or distorted. NDPF noted that the most salient issue concerning the administration of NDDC and which the authentic stakeholders of the Niger Delta have consistently demanded, and which even the President had promised and made commitments on is to end the illegal Interim Management / sole administratorship at the NDDC and inaugurate the Board of the Commission upon receipt of the forensic audit, in compliance with the law, and which promise he made to the nation on June 24, 2021 when he received the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) in Aso Rock, Abuja. The President had said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.” The Forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari since seven months ago, on September 2, 2021. The Niger Delta Peoples’ Forum reminded the Senate President that the continued administration of the NDDC by Interim management committee / sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the Board and Management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the Board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. 

According to the group, nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act.  NDPF noted that the situation currently in NDDC which has subsisted for over two years is that the illegal sole administrator is both Managing Director, Executive Director of Finance, and Executive Director Projects, in clear breach of NDDC Act which ensures separation of these duties to ensure checks and balances. NDPF also drew attention on the need for President Buhari and the nation’s Senate to remember not to taint their legacies, even after office, by ensuring abidance to the law establishing NDDC because the continued illegality of the interim management committees/sole administrator contraptions administering NDDC since October 2019 in breach of the law, NDDC Act, is a national embarrassment that should be of grave concern to not only President Buhari but also the nation’s National Assembly leadership, led by Dr. Ahmad Lawan. The group also drew the Senate President’s attention to North East Development Commission (NEDC) stating that whereas the NEDC has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act thereby ensuring proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act.
Ebiakpo assured Dr. Lawan that the Senate’s renewed vigour to ensure the inauguration of NDDC Board, in accordance with the law is in tandem with unending calls, demands and peaceful agitations of youths, men and women, political and traditional leaders and civil society organisations that the inauguration of the board of NDDC will ensure compliance with the NDDC Act, promote and sustain peace, equity and fairness, transparency and accountability, good governance and rapid development and transformation of the Niger Delta Region.  The Niger Delta Peoples’ Forum therefore re-affirmed that it aligns with the demands of authentic Niger Delta stakeholders for an end to the illegal Interim Management/sole administratorship at the NDDC, and so demand for the inauguration of the NDDC Governing Board in line with the NDDC Act to represent the nine constituent states, and thereby ensure proper corporate governance, accountability, transparency, and probity in managing the Commission.