*Akpabio, the Senate and the Niger Delta*

This must be a very challenging time for the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akapbio. As a governor, he was used to working without being challenged but not this time since he has the Presidency to report as well as the National Assembly which oversees the activities of his Ministry.

The inauguration of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the Minister, who has been mandated by the Presidency to oversee the Commission, may have put the Minister at loggerheads with his former colleagues at the Senate.

The President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, had during the confirmation of the nominees for the NDDC board, stated that the new board should start work immediately as an IMC was unknown to the Act establishing the NDDC. The directive by the Senate President that the new Board should commence work immediately sounded like a legislator trying to take over the function of the Executive, even when the Board in question has not been inaugurated by the Presidency.

The comments made by the Minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe that the Senate had done its work and that it was the business of the Executive to decide whether or not to play basket ball with the NDDC matter, was very profound. It is common knowledge that the duty of the Senate should begin and end with legislative and oversight functions.

Interestingly, as the Senate was confirming the NDDC nominees, the IMC already inaugurated by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, was busy letting Nigerians know the huge rot in the Commission.

According to Cairo Ojougboh, the Acting Executive Director of Projects of the NDDC, a Serving Senator who was also a member of the Senate Committee on the NDDC was awarded 300 contracts out of which 120 had been fully paid for even when the Senator was yet to mobilise to any of the sites. He added that the NDDC was owing contractors over N3 trillion. Curiously, Ojougboh has cause to believe that the contractors are phantom contractors and this also makes him believe that the particular Senator involved with the 300 contracts must be behind a campaign of calumny against the IMC which, according to the Senator Akpabio received the blessings of Mr President.

President Buhari apparently had a mindset when he said he would wait for the report of the forensic audit before revisiting the organisation being the NDDC. It stands to reason that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs may be on the right path after all. Truth be told. The way and manner the list containing the names of nominees for the NDDC board was sent to the Senate and speed with which the Senate screened and confirmed the nominees and directed that they should work immediately seem not ordinary.

With all these drama happening, this writer who is from one of the states covered by the NDDC is perplexed that there is not so much support yet for the IMC, that has just directed the stoppage of the payment of a whopping N1 billion monthly payment to a Consultancy firm whose only job is to collect money from International Oil Companies (IOCs) on behalf of the NDDC. The obvious implication of this is that the NDDC will have N12 billion naira yearly that can execute so many projects in the Niger Delta region.

Could this be another case of corruption fighting back. In the words of Mr President, " I try to follow the act setting up these institutions especially, the NDDC. With the amount of money that the Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues.
" The projects said to have been done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so many billions and when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done"

To lend credence to the concerns of Mr President, Ojougboh said that if we all had the opportunity of looking into the books of the NDDC that we would cry. There cannot be a better way of describing the rot in the NDDC. In the oil producing areas of Abia State, there is no credible project that can be attributed to the NDDC. There are no good roads as all NDDC roads wear off as they being tarred, no good hospital, no good primary or secondary school and no electricity. But take a trip to the area, you will have many projects abandoned by the NDDC including the ones it inherited from the the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) era. It is nearly twenty years that the NDDC was established, yet there is practically nothing to show for it in Ukwa West of Abia State where the oil wells are still producing luxuriantly. Meanwhile, many Nigerians, including some in the National Assembly, as has just been exposed, are living large by collecting contracts from the NDDC and not executing the contracts.

As the struggle for the legality of actions between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the Senate continues, the Presidency must not forget that the fate of the Niger Delta is the subject of the discussion here and the youths in the Niger Delta are watching.

The IMC should be allowed to continue their work as the forensic auditors get ready to join them if they have not joined them yet.

https://www.abnews247.com/2019/11/opinion-akpabio-the-senate-and-the-niger-delta/