₦airaland Forum

When the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 by the Obasanjo administration, it had a clear, justifiable, and urgent purpose: to correct decades of environmental degradation, poverty, and infrastructural neglect in the oil-producing region that generates the bulk of Nigeria’s revenue.

The NDDC was funded from derivations on petroleum income, a natural and logical flow from where the wealth came from to where the suffering was deepest.

Fast forward to 2025, and Nigeria is witnessing the establishment of five new Regional Development Commissions (RDCs).

North-East Development Commission (NEDC)
North-West Development Commission (NWDC)
South-West Development Commission (SWDC)
South-East Development Commission (SEDC)
North-Central Development Commission (NCDC) (awaiting presidential assent).

While many cheer these moves as efforts to balance development across regions, others raise eyebrows:

Where will the funds come from?
Why is ₦2.5 trillion allocated for salaries, not projects?
And is this truly for regional growth or just a new political money pit?

NDDC: A Case Study in Contextual Justification

The Niger Delta, which includes oil-rich states like Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta, has long borne the brunt of Nigeria’s wealth extraction: suffered extreme environmental damage, poverty, and underdevelopment despite accounting for 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings and up to 70% of government revenue.

Why Was NDDC Justified?

Funding Source: 15% of monthly oil revenue + 3% of oil company budgets + federal subvention.

Mandate: Infrastructural development, environmental remediation, youth empowerment.

Problem Solving Logic: Those whose resources feed the nation must benefit from its wealth

The ₦2.5 Trillion Question: What About the New RDCs?

The 2025 Budget signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu allocated a staggering ₦2.493 trillion to the five new RDCs:

NDDC: 776.53
NWDC: 585.93
SWDC: 498.40
SEDC: 341.27
NEDC: 290.99
Total: 2,493.12

However, there is a massive red flag:

Over 99.7% of this budget was allocated solely to salaries and recurrent expenditure.

There is no line item for regional physical development, infrastructure, or capital projects.

In a country with over 130 million multidimensionally poor people and an inflation rate hovering near 34%, this move has sparked outrage.

Let’s Break Down the Scale

To appreciate the magnitude of ₦2.5 trillion, consider:

Nigeria’s entire education budget in 2025: N1.23 trillion.

Health sector budget N1.05 trillion

Combined federal allocations to the police and defence M2.1 trillion

Yet, more money is being set aside for salaries of commissions that have no physical project plans than for all schools and hospitals combined.

If ₦2.5 Trillion Were Shared with the People Instead

Let’s do a simple math exercise:
If ₦10,000 were shared per person from the ₦2.5 trillion budget, 250 million Nigerians could receive a payment.

That’s enough to give N10,000 to every single Nigerian and still have change.
Yet, the same amount is being spent on unnamed "salaries" in commissions with no visible project plan.

Can we then assume that some recent praise singers of this administration have begun to receive their share of these “imaginary salaries"?

Well, perhaps they’re simply being paid for the real job of praise.

Questions of Transparency and Political Manipulation

The lack of development-focused expenditure raises serious questions:

1. Why fund salaries without commissioning projects?
Civil servants in these agencies will be paid without delivering on roads, power, water, or education?

2. Where will this money come from?Unlike the NDDC (which gets oil-derived funding), the new RDCs draw directly from Nigeria’s federal account, meaning, all Nigerians are paying, even for commissions that may never benefit them.

3. Political Weaponization?
In an election season (2027 approaches), ₦2.5 trillion could serve as a political war chest.

Jobs in RDCs can be handed out to party loyalists as patronage.

Funds can be redirected or laundered through ghost salaries, inflated contracts, or shell firms.

In a country where poverty is so high that a ₦10,000 cash gift can buy loyalty, ₦2.5 trillion is more than enough to buy the whole country.

Example of Possible Misuse: A Hypothetical Scenario

Assume each commission employs 5,000 personnel (an optimistic cap). That’s 25,000 total.

If ₦2.49 trillion is spent on salaries for 25,000 people, that equates to:

N99.6 million per staff member annually, or ₦8.3 million per month

This is mathematically impossible under a legitimate payroll system. It either means:

The actual number of staff is inflated (ghost workers).

There is a leakage of over 80% into corrupt hands.

Funds are being diverted to fund political structures (as alleged during previous administrations with fuel subsidy fraud)

What the Regions Actually Need

What Nigeria’s regions urgently need is not another layer of bureaucrats collecting salaries, but tangible, physical development that can transform lives: roads, schools, hospitals, power and clean water.

A Better Use of ₦2.5 Trillion
If the ₦2.5 trillion currently allocated to salaries were instead channeled into real capital projects, the impact could be nation-shifting:

15,000 kilometers of roads could be constructed, opening up trade and reducing transportation costs.

5 million homes could be powered with solar electricity, easing Nigeria’s energy crisis.

5,000 new schools or 1,000 hospitals could be built, dramatically improving access to education and healthcare.

Millions of Nigerians could be empowered through targeted entrepreneurship and skills development programs, creating jobs and reducing poverty sustainably.

Conclusion: Development or Deception?

The idea of regional development commissions is not inherently bad. In fact, if anchored in genuine need and driven by transparency, accountability, and measurable outcomes, they could be powerful tools for inclusive growth.

But without:
Clear project plans
Capital infrastructure investment
Independent oversight and citizen engagement

these new commissions risk becoming cash siphons, vote-buying tools, and bureaucratic traps that worsen Nigeria’s fiscal bleeding rather than healing its developmental wounds.

It’s time Nigerians asked:
Is this about our future, or about their power?

Recommendations:

1. Immediate audit of RDC staffing and salaries.
2. FOI requests by civil society for budget breakdown and execution plans.
3. National Assembly hearings on why no capital projects exist in the ₦2.5T allocation.
4. Transparency mandates: Quarterly reports, digital dashboards, and citizen tracking.

These developmental commissions are scams. They are there to mask the fact that Nigeria is not practising federalism. Nigeria pretends that there are 6 geopolitical zones, but the constitution does not recognise them. So how are you creating development commissions for Regions not recognised by your own constitution?

What should have been done is hold referendum that will create Regions recognised by the constitution. After that, each Region controls their resources and pay tax to the centre. Whatever each Region retains after taxes, expenses and deductions are made, they use it to develop their Region

They cant do that, so they create useless development commissions that may be a conduit for corruption

gidgiddy:
These developmental commissions are scams. They are there to mask the fact that Nigeria is not practising federalism. Nigeria pretends that there 6 geopolitical zones, but the constitution does not recognise them. So how are creating development commissions for Regions not recognised by your own constitution?

What should have been done is hold referendum that will create Regions recognised by the constitution. After that, each Region controls their resources and pay tax to the centre. Whatever each Region retains after taxes, expenses and deductions are made, they use it to develop their Region

They can do that, so they create useless development commissions that may be a conduit for corruption

I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately most Nigerians are just too biased to understand the truth.

N2.5 Trillion Can Buy Iyalaya Anybody — Even Their Conscience

If you’ve been wondering why some of the loudest voices have suddenly gone silent, or worse, turned into cheerleaders for a government presiding over hunger, hardship, and deepening poverty, here’s your answer: M2.5 trillion.

When that kind of money is on the table, even the fiercest critics can mysteriously find their voices… only to use them in praise.

But here’s the real tragedy: if you haven’t received a kobo of that “praise budget,” and you’re still clapping and shouting “God bless our leaders!” Or “on your manhood (abi na mandate) we shall stand!” alongside those who have, then maybe you need deliverance. Because at that point, you’re no longer just poor, you’re bewitched.

SE and NE went extra ordinary to achieve their own DC. Wondering why they had to go to that extent..