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WHY NDDC SCHOLARSHIP IS A FAILURE

Every year, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) awards 200 postgraduate scholarships to indigenes of the Niger Delta to further their studies abroad. The scholarship benefits nine States in the region and slots are awarded to each state on quota basis, as determined by the volume of oil each state produces.

In the previous administration, the scholarship selection process was marred by irregularities and corruption. Rather than award scholarship based on merit, the scholarship slots were hotly contested like oil blocks by Senators, Governors and politicians and government officials who lobbied the scheme and ensured that their children and relatives were the sole beneficiaries of the scheme.

Last year’s scholarship was not properly organized. Most of the recipients are yet to resume because the award letters for 2011/2012 session came out in September. The award amount is fixed at $30,000, successful scholars are expected to arrange for visa themselves and find their way to the school. Through the Scholarship arrangement, the NDDC pays the tuition fees directly to the school and gives the student the balance of the money if any. For most of 2010/2011 scholars, and a few of the 2011/2012 scholars who had the financial means to start off on their own for the 2011/2012 session, NDDC just paid their fees January this year. This is over four months after they resumed, and the balance of the $30,000 was paid into the accounts of some recipients while some others experienced delay in payment. With this arrangement, successful scholars must find alternative financial means to start off while they wait patiently and pray for NDDC to fulfill their promise.

At the inauguration of the new 18 man board of the NDDC on the 29th of November, which has Dr Tarilah Tebepah as its Chairman, President Goodluck Jonathan called on the new leadership to learn from the errors of their predecessors by avoiding partisan politics. “I believe you will learn from the mistakes of your immediate predecessors. "I always emphasize that people must not play politics with the development of our people". Jonathan also called on the new board to set new performance standards in the Niger Delta region.

Dr Christian Oboh,Managing Director of the commission further assured that the board would discharge its duties conscious of the fact that its activities were subject to public scrutiny. This, he said could be achieved by upholding the principle of accountability and transparency.

The new leadership has already shown commitment towards transparency in the 2012/2013 Scholarship Awards , which opened in March this year, by introducing an aptitude test which all the qualified applicants wrote. The event was covered by the media and televised on National Television.A total of 3,100 candidates of Niger Delta origin were shortlisted out of about 6,000 that applied for the NDDC Foreign Scholarship Scheme, and have written an electronic examination. The candidates comprised persons who have obtained admission for Masters and Doctorate Degrees. The results of the electronic test were displayed to the candidates on their computer screen after submitting the test.

Speaking to newsmen at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, ICT Centre, venue of the aptitude test, the Director, Education, Health and Social Services, Dr. Christy Atako explained that the choice of electronic examination was to enable the Commission shortlist the right candidates to be interviewed for the scholarship scheme. At the end of the exercise, the 1089 candidates were shortlisted for interview and their names published.

However, despite this new measure, there are signs that this new administration may trail the path of its predecessors. Time will tell whether the present admissions is able to live up to its doctrine of transparency and accountability. Already, the scholarship scheme is coming late as most of the awardees will have to defer their admissions for another year. What is most alarming about this year’s scholarship is the shoddiness by which successful scholars are being contacted. Rather than use its official means of correspondence, the commission delegated the responsibility of contacting the awardees to their state representatives. Its over two weeks that the successful awardees were contacted, yet the NDDC has not made a public statement on the issue and is yet to publish the names of the successful awardees on its website or on the national dailies.Also the final selection process was not spelt out by the agency as we don't know whether the test or the interview was their basis for selection.

This raises an alarm because the interview process was given media coverage but the NDDC is trying to play it low now that its time for the grand finale. Could it be that the NDDC has reneged on its promise of accountability and transparency? Already, rumours have it that the selection process was hijacked by high profile politicians who used the opportunity to divert the awards in favor of their relatives, some of who did not participate in the interview. The NDDC’s reluctance to publish the list of successful scholars only corroborates this fact.

Prior to this time the NDDC published a comprehensive list of participants of the first interview based on their performance and state of origin. This list was hastily removed from their website. Could this be a move to cover up its activities?. Can the NDDC to dispel the popular belief that its Scholarship scheme is a bogus project that was designed to benefit rich, influential, and corrupt politicians.

Critics of the scholarship scheme say that 200 awards is insufficient for nine states citing other state government schemes like Rivers State and Kano State. The NDDC Scholarship benefits less than 15% of qualified applicants and some states get less than 10 slots. NDDC has the capacity to sponsor 1000 Niger Deltans.So why 200?

We can recall that the NDDC was set up by the Federal Government as an interventionist agency to address some of the developmental needs of the Niger Delta region, which has for long suffered neglect, despite being the goose that lays the golden egg for the country. Twelve years after, the region is yet to effectively realize its mandate.

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