NDDC: Semenitaritude

The achievements of the Acting MD/CEO, Niger Delta Development Commission, Ibim Semenitari, in the past 10 months at the agency has been highlighted in this piece by Chigachi Eke

Ibim Semenitari, Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) owes her office to President Muhammadu Buhari and Part IV Section 12 of the NDDC Act of 2000. Her December 2015 appointment letter urges her “To Fulfil President Mohammadu Buhari’s vision for the Niger Delta region,” according to in-house Second Quarter Report, 19th March-19th June 2016. Ten months counting, it makes sense enquiring if she fulfilled her mandate.

It was hoped any acting MD would emerge from the ranks and restore order, like past acting MDs Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, Osato Arayenka and Christy Atako. The widening schism between management and staff, absenteeism, poor administrative control and ubiquitous directors with conflicting roles were symptomatic of imminent systemic failure. But that was not to be as Semenitari was an outsider
unlikely to understand the full rot. Within the commission, therefore, her appointment only intensified the foreboding.

In the larger region the heavy hand of Rotimi Amaechi, former Rivers governor, was seen at work in her appointment. People believed Amaechi and his All Progressives Congress (APC) imposed her on NDDC to further destabilise the region; not satisfied with removing Goodluck Jonathan from office as president. Partisan consideration aside, the pervading angst remained that no amount of change in leadership could cure the commission. Rural Niger Delta was littered with abandoned projects as contractors and supervisory engineers from Head Office were not paid. Calls were rife for the scraping of the interventionist agency.

In “Africa and the International Political System,” Professor Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu believes the leader is the most important state requirement as his character impacts on its overall performance, “The unique character, decisions and actions of an individual especially if he is the Head of State of a country…evoke international reactions and relations usually unique and peculiar to the man and his circumstances that evoke those international reactions and relations.” What happened next in NDDC was conditioned not by arithmetic but Semenitari’s overwhelming character traits. In understanding these traits we must unearth the unknown realities that shaped her as Ijaw woman, journalist and activist. That is another way of asking how her riverine environment influences her attitude to duty.

Professor Grace Alele-Williams, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa and Oyo-Ita Winifred Ekanem would make interesting case studies in environmental determinism; namely, how the environment affects one’s character and fortune. Face to face with these amazons one readily concludes they succeeded because of their benevolent Chi. But from our reading of Didi Esther Nimi Walson-Jack’s “Thorns in the Roses,” we know what it means being born a girl-child in rural Niger Delta. She paddles canoe to and from distant farms, hauls water for grandma from Nun River before retiring for the night in a flooded hut reminiscent of JP Clark’s “Night Rain.” Any girl who survives such hostile environment will soar in a friendly one. But success only points her back to her roots with the zeal to change things.

This explains why many successful people are philanthropists. They have been there.
Dr. Felix Tuodolo, one of two signatories to the iconic Kaiama Declaration, privileges Semenitari as struggle heroine. In his words, she wrote extensively on the Niger Delta problem as a committed journalist. The two occasions he met her as acting MD were reassuring as she still talked about rural communities. This is a sentiment better expressed by Chairman Iyerifama Godswill Jaja of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Eastern Zone. In his approximation her overwhelming character traits were industry and loyalty. She invested heavily in Rural Development Service Programme of Intervention because her thought process was homeward bound.

To turn the commission around here is what Semenitari did: She carried out a situation report that exposed areas of weakness as partly listed in the second and third paragraphs. Her reforms began with changing mindset while tackling absenteeism. Stop thinking of what wasn’t happening but what could hopefully be, she challenged her workers. To demonstrate that redeployment to state office was no death sentence she relocated to Yenagoa for a full day’s work. Then matching words with action she promoted those whose promotions were approved since 2014 before looking into staff welfare. Suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel.

She domiciled transparency realigning NDDC with the NDDC Act of 2000, Procurement Act of 2007, Public Service Rules, Financial Regulations and Niger Delta Master Plan. This purged the system of corruption making it more result-oriented. Working with the Senator Peter Nwaoboshi Senate Committee on Niger Delta, oil multinationals were forced to tender their past budgets to ascertain what they owed her commission. That was how the Nigerian Agip Oil Company was exposed as the number one culprit in starving NDDC of funds.

Semenitari’s fiscal discipline goes beyond spending to earning.
In terms of infrastructure she completed and commissioned the following within six months of her appointment: Ifon, Igbotako and Ugbo-Nla internal roads in Ondo State; Osian, Odeh, Umeri/Upper Ojekpolor and Cemetary Streets in Delta State. In addition, she handed over 30 project sites to contractors in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo and Ondo States. These include roads, solar powered water and light projects, buildings, dredging/desilting, concrete pavement and rural electrification. She also paid Setraco for completion of the abandoned all-important Ogbia-Nembe superhighway.

Running NDDC as activist without failing as administrator was her best. She put money in the pockets of Niger Deltans through an innovative payment scheme. When it was time to pay contractors she began with small contractors whose Interim Payment Certificates (IPCs) for works done were less than N10 million. This category constitutes of impoverished local youths owed as little as N200,000. Starting from 2009 she paid up to 2014, earning rare commendation from Joe Adia, President, Contractors Association of NDDC.
NDDC was sick to the extent of inept leadership. Like Lazarus, it was brought back to life by activist Semenitari whose can-do attitude is conditioned by her hostile riverine environment, “If you are going to get staff to be more compliant, to come to work on time, then you have to show good leadership by being there on time. And if you are going to get staff to show pride in their organization then you have to show leadership by taking pride.”

Postscript: NDDC After Semenitari
The regional Master Plan borrowed heavily from Professor Ekpebu’s “Developmental Strategies for the Niger Delta.” To actualise these strategies former President Olusegun Obasanjo invoked Article 21 of the NDDC Act of 2000 to appoint the distinguished academic as Chairman, Presidential Monitoring Committee on NDDC. We honestly believe that this 1999 booklet has a big role to play in the success of repositioned NDDC.

Secondly, Semenitari honoured Niger Delta icons by displaying their portraits on the ground floor of Head Office. While commending her for recognising the contributions of preceding generations to the struggle, we state that the history of minority struggle is incomplete without mentioning Professor Ekpebu whose prodigious mind made the Commander Alfred Diete-Spiff cabinet the overall best in Nigeria both at federal and state levels, in General Yakubu Gowon’s own verdict.

As Commissioner for Finance in old Rivers under the pioneer Commander Diete-Spiff government, Professor Ekpebu did his very best for Niger Delta minorities. He established Rivers-owned Pan-African Bank, PAB, PABOD Group of Companies comprising of PABOD Stores/Breweries, Rivbank Finance, Rivbank Insurance, etc. How did Rivers get the dollars to float Risonpalm if not through Professor Ekpebu’s brilliant presentation before the visiting World Bank president who was so impressed that he granted Commander Diete-Spiff a hefty World Bank loan?

The portraits of Professor Ekpebu (first African to graduate from Harvard with BA 1960, MA 1962 and Ph.D 1965), Professor Isaac Dema (Commander Diete-Spiff 1967 sent Professor Ekpebu to Ghana to plead the Rivers case before Professor Dema who instantly gave up his United Nations job to serve Rivers) and Dr. Nabo Graham-Douglas (first Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, first Attorney-General of defunct Biafra, first Attorney-General of Rivers and Gowon’s Attorney-General of Nigeria) also deserve places of honour on the ground floor of the Harold Dappa-Biriye House. Honouring these three icons is a job for Semenitari’s successor.
Email: chigachieke@yahoo.co.uk
Writer acknowledges the contribution of Iyerifama Godswill Jaja, Chairman, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Eastern Zone.