Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC): Round around the circle we go
The NDDC was established in 2000 to formulate policies and implement same to ensure the development of Nigeria’s oil producing communities and reduce the restiveness in this important region. The current administration (Buhari’s administration started in 2015) in its first term made appointments at least three times into the NDDC — an interim management at the start, a full board which was dissolved just before the national elections and another interim management thereafter. Therefore, it has had three opportunities to bring men and women of ‘integrity’ and ‘capability’ to ‘turnaround’ the affairs of the NDDC. By its admission — the outcome has not justified the ‘huge sums’ disbursed to the commission, not only for its own 4 years but for all tenures from 2000. So as the second term begins, it has again made appointments in the same way it made in the previous four years, another set of men and women of ‘integrity’ and ‘capability’ and will spend the same ‘huge sums’ and while not being a prophet of doom, the educated guess, is that we will end very close to where we are now perhaps with some added drama because of the personality of some actors now in the fray.
The truth is that the current hubris about a forensic audit distracts from the real work: the NDDC is not fit for purpose. The NDDC Act needs a total overhaul. The overhaul should not be the type undertaken in 2017 which was supposed to be a response to Niger Delta Development Commission v Nigeria Liquefied National Gas Limited (NDDC v NLNG) case but ended up being a rehash of the previous position of the section 14(2)(b) with some inelegant punctuation changes (sadly, there is so much non-accountability in the system that no one will ever be asked to explain why the so-called amendment passed by the National Assembly and signed into Law by the President — changes absolutely nothing from the previous statute) or the major reorganisation in 2019, where the supervision of the commission was moved to the Ministry of the Niger Delta.
The fault is in our stars: Integrity and Capability vs. Competency
The background of the period when the NDDC was established by the Obasanjo administration, was that there was heightened political agitation for greater resource control in the region. The drafting of the Act reflects the need to maintain the delicate political balance of the time. The part time NDDC board, was to have a chairman which would be rotated by each of the NDDC state which were alphabetically set out. The tenure of the board was for four years that could be extended by another four years. The Managing Director and the two executive directors were to be appointed from the oil producing states, rotating among them with consideration to their oil producing prowess and each of the state had appointees on the board. In effect each Managing Director had a four-year tenure that could be renewed.
In practice, appointments to the NDDC has been politicians, selected by whatever political apparatus the Federal Government felt best represented it in the relevant states.
This structure is defective.
First, regeneration and development is not amendable to start and stop of a four-year appointment process especially where the renewal of tenure is almost impossible with the next state in line just waiting for their turn. Also, using the CV of the appointees we have had, it is clear that they do not have the competency to handle the difficult process of planning and executing life changing development policies — the lack of actual experience in development is alarming. It is not surprising that the only master plan proudly displayed on the NDDC website is the severely out of date one that was written in the early 2000’s.
Also having political actors nominate members of a development agency, was an experiment that was always going to end badly without strong bureaucratic structures — which NDDC was not blessed with at conception. In the 20 years, the commission has existed there has been infighting as different state commissioners defended their ‘appointments’; lopsided projects that have been poorly executed or abandoned and could only be explained because of where the state appointee came from, numerous ridiculous cases of corruption including burning of money in the house of a native doctor!
The NDDC has failed to and still does not have a clear plan on how to lift Niger Deltans from poverty and end the under development of the area. Some of the ideas that have been floated only display the lack of understanding and experience of those that have been saddled with leading the commission. Also, the commission has also become the finishing house for a major political office campaign launch by its MD.
Huge Sums
One of the areas of contention has been the actual financial disbursement to the commission. It is indeed debatable that the Federal Government has met its obligation to the commission and as can be deducted from the NDDC v NLNG case, the oil and gas companies are not exactly enthused about contributing. Development needs money. It needs a determinable pipeline of projects that is backed by consistent funding. The perfect scenario is to plan from a secure base of funding and then to secure other sources.
New NDDC
Appointment to NDDC should not be political. The most important duty of the commission is the difficult role of actually developing an area with a difficult physical and more recently social terrain. The MD and its assistant should be appointed by international recruitment, with emphasis on qualifications and experience. The recruitment process should place emphasis on the ability of candidates develop and articulate a development plan for the Niger Delta. This would require familiarity with and interest in the development of the area. State of origin should only attract some points but not be determining of the appointment. The MD should be appointed along with an assistant for a non — renewable period of 8 years. That way there is security of tenure and also no need to compromise to gain a renewal. All other part of the NDDC hierarchy, should be civil servants both locally and internationally sourced using best practice, the original recruitment process of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) provides a platform, but with none of the recent political interference associated with the NCC employment process. The NDDC MD should not be eligible to contest for any political post for at least four years after the end of his tenure.
The board of the NDDC should be permanent but part-time, with sitting allowance and chairmanship rotated among the members nominated directly by the oil bearing communities. Membership of the board should be renewable every 2 years, by local direct nomination. This allows the local communities a direct say in the formulation of policies and also local buy in.
The base funds for the NDDC should come directly from petroleum companies active in the region, the should be amendments in the tax laws, to allow the companies a 3% rebate to allow them, pay 6% of revenue directly to the NDDC. This way, there is no need to deal with poor and inconsistent funding from the Federal government. Also the oil companies have the most to gain from an effective NDDC.
The monitoring committee that has incidentally not been constituted by the current government, should be called an audit committee and peopled by the petroleum companies — they would have the active interest to ensure the monies they are contributing is not mismanaged.
The NDDC should cease from being an interventionist agency. For the next 10 years it should be a rural development agency and after that an urban regeneration agency. It should have a clear focus. Funding for the agency should not be released until an updated plan for development is published which clearly links up to a current masterplan. Like other development agencies, it should have yearly or two yearly themes.
Conclusion
At its best impulse the current NDDC structure will continue to fail the people. A region with a high number of out of primary school children, had one of its recent interim chairperson agonising over hostels in universities. Nothing epitomises just how out of tune the current NDDC is than its continuing and recently approved by this administration $5million headquarters, this is in an area where portable water is still such a challenge that a couple of young person’s got together to successfully build a water project for a community that has not had clean portable water literally forever while the NDDC awarded a similar project in another area, to an appropriately named contractor: Kal Vegas Kapuchino Limited, which was promptly abandoned.
The human cost of delaying these changes should not be forgotten. Most Niger Delta communities are experiencing gradual but sustained breakdown of law and order. There are communities were the police post have been destroyed, communities where rival gangs called cults constantly terrorise the people, and we continue to have people killed for inter community clashes over lands that have not produced up to $100K in all the many years of being farmed.
The National Assembly should discontinue the ongoing appointment process and undertake a complete overhaul of the NDDC Act.