The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has warned the Federal Government against implementing any plan to scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and allow the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to perform the functions of the interventionist agency.
The IYC, the umbrella body of all Ijaws in the Niger Delta region, said in a statement by its President, Deacon Peter Timothy Igbifa, that any attempt to merge NDDC with any Ministry “will nail the fragile peace we currently enjoy in the region to the coffin of avoidable violent conflict.”
Calling on the federal government to distance itself from any suggestion or advice by any group to either scrap the NDDC or merge it with any Ministry, the IYC advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of some of his aides entrusted with the collective interest of the region.
The regional group also advised President Buhari to immediately inaugurate the board of the NDDC and constitute an independent probe into how the funds of the Commission were spent in the past two years.
Although the scrapping of the NDDC was not part of the recommendations of the Forensic Audit Report, sources indicated that the federal government has lost confidence in the ability of the Commission as currently constituted to deliver on the mandate of developing the oil-producing region.
Under the planned restructuring, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs will assume the functions of the NDDC or the regional interventionist body becomes an agency under The Presidency.
A source confirmed that it is these considerations that is largely responsible for the delay in reconstituting the NDDC board, which has caused so much misgivings in the Niger Delta region with some ex-militants threatening, at some point, to resort to violence over the issue.
At the height of this threat, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, travelled to Delta State to meet with stakeholders, appealing to them to be patient.
The NDDC was established in the year 2000 by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in response to the demands of the people of the area to care for their special needs.
It was charged with the specific responsibilities of formulating policies and guidelines for the development of the Niger Delta; conception, planning and implementation, in accordance with set rules and regulations, of projects and programs for sustainable development of the area in the field of transportation including roads, jetties and waterways, health, employment, industrialization, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications; and preparing master plans and schemes designed to promote the physical development of the region and the estimation of the member states of the commission, among others.
The NDDC itself had taken over the functions of the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) which was set up in 1992 by the Babangida military regime.
Eight years after the establishment of NDDC, the late President Umaru Yar Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, with the Commission as a parastatal under it.
However, the NDDC has failed to meet the yearnings of the people who kept asking questions about what happened to the N16 trillion allocated to it in 18 years without commensurate results.
The Forensic Audit Report submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari on September 2, 2021, recommended the abolition of mobilization payment to contractors and the employment of the services of professional project consultants to ensure accurate supervision and valuation of projects.
It was also recommended that the Commission should adopt a standard for costing contracts with appropriate profit margin.
