Buhari, Umana, APC & illegality in NDDC

It is now on record that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been illegally administered for three years-running by interim managements in flagrant disregard of established Law. In November 2019, the Buhari administration appointed an Interim Management Committee (IMC) for the NDDC pleading the jejune excuse that the commission needed to be audited. In complete violation of both the statute setting up the commission – the NDDC Act and good sense, the administration persisted in this same self-serving and opportunistic track by reappointing another IMC and then a sole administrator for the NDDC.

These acts of Illegality have been roundly condemned as both illegal and corruption-laden by competent authorities and stakeholders in the Niger Delta region. In March 2022, the Federal High Court sitting in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State ruled that the abandonment of the NDDC Act in the appointment of its management and usurpation of the rights of stakeholders in the NDDC by the decision to appoint Interim committees / sole administrators for the agency are both illegal and must be redressed. The court granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Federal Government from further constituting Interim Management/Sole Administrators to run the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The federal government is yet to comply with this order of the High Court. Rather, there are reports that it is plotting to either extend the tenure of the current illegal sole administrator or replace him with yet another interim management.

This blatant disregard for the provisions of the NDDC Act is unprecedented in Nigeria, not even under the military regimes which by their nature show scant regard for the rule of law. The NDDC Act clearly stipulates the approved / legal Governing Structure for the Commission. On the composition of its Governing Board, the NDDC (Establishment) Act No. 6 of 2000 under Section 2 provides that “There is hereby established for the Commission a governing Board, which shall consist of- (a) a Chairman; (b) one person who shall be an indigene of an oil producing area to represent each of the following member States, that is, (i) Abia State, (ii) Akwa-lbom State, (iii) Bayelsa State, (iv) Cross River State, (v) Delta State, (vi) Edo State, (vii) Imo State, (viii) Ondo State, and (ix) Rivers State; (c) three persons to represent non-Oil mineral producing States provided that such membership should be drawn from the remaining geo-political zones which are not represented in the Commission; (d) One representative of Oil producing companies in the Niger- Delta nominated by the Oil producing companies; (e) one person to represent the Federal Ministry of Finance; (f) one person to represent Federal Ministry of Environment (g) the managing Director of the Commission (h) two executive Directors (2) The Chairman and other members-of the Board shall- (a) be appointed by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, subject to the confirmation of the Senate. (b) Be persons of proven integrity and ability. (3) The members of the Board referred to in paragraph (a – f) of sub-section (1) of this section shall be part-time members.”

Section 8 of the Act provides that the Board shall have power to (a) manage and supervise affairs of the Commission; (b) make rules and regulations for carrying out the functions of the Commission; (c) enter and inspect premises, projects and such places as may be necessary for the purposes of carrying out its functions under this Act; (d) pay the staff of the Commission such remuneration and allowances as appropriate; (e) enter into such contracts as may be necessary or expedient for the discharge of its functions and ensure the efficient performance of the functions of the Commission; (f) do such other things as are necessary and expedient for the efficient performance of the functions of the Commission.

The NDDC Act does not provide for the Government of the day to break the law under whatever guise. Nowhere does it make allowance for a sole administrator or interim committee. The provisions of the NDDC Act has been serially breached since the President Buhari Administration assumed office in 2015.

The fact of the matter is that there has been five interim impositions since the inception of the NDDC and all five were made by the Buhari Administration. The first was that of Mrs. Ibim Semenitari in 2015 after the substantive Governing Board was dissolved. The Buhari Administration imposed Semenitari as sole administrator of the NDDC in breach of the NDDC Act, thus denying the nine constituent states of representation in the leadership as provided for in the NDDC Act. The same thing was done when the second illegal imposition was done in the appointment of Professor Nelson Brambaifa as Head of a 3 man interim team in January 2019. The Brambaifa led interim committee lasted till the 27th of August 2019 when the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) announced that the President had approved a Board for the NDDC in line with the NDDC Act. The SGF statement listed the names of the members of the new board with Dr. Pius Odubu as Chairman and Chief Bernard Okumagba as Managing Director amongst others and stated that the appointments were “subject to senate confirmation”. Shortly after that, President Buhari in a letter dated October 18th 2019 which he personally signed and sent to the Senate listed the names of the nominees for the the new NDDC Board and requested the Senate to “confirm the nominees in the usual expeditous manner”. The President stated in his letter that he was requesting for the Senate Confirmation of the nominees “in accordance with the provision of Section 2(2)(a) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) (Establishment) Act, 2000”. The Senate went on to screen the nominees and confirmed their appointments on the 5th of November 2019. Surprisingly, certain officials of the Buhari Government subsequently got the President to approve suspension of the inauguration of the substantive board which President Buhari had appointed and which the Senate had confirmed until the completion of a “forensic audit” on the NDDC. Thereafter, a third illegal imposition – Interim Management Committee led by Ms. Joi Nunieh was installed in the NDDC to supervise the conduct of a “forensic audit” and held sway till February 2020 when Ms. Joi Nunieh was removed. The fourth imposition was that of Prof Daniel Keme Pondei and 4 others as an expanded Interim Management Committee in February 2020, and the fifth is the imposition of Mr Effiong Akwa as Interim Sole Administrator of the NDDC in December 2020, a position which he is still illegally occupying to date. In all the illegal interim appointments, the law – the NDDC Act which provides for the representation of the nine constituent states of the NDDC in the leadership and the confirmation by the Senate, was not complied with.

In discarding the law since 2019, the Buhari administration had said it was undertaking what it called a “forensic audit” of the NDDC. That audit took all of two years to conclude, after several contrived postponements and several billions of naira down the drain. Even after the report was submitted in September last year, eleven months ago, the regime is yet to publish the report and is yet to put in place a Governing Board for the Commission in compliance with the Law – the NDDC Act.

Over the last three years the NDDC has operated without its statutory governance mechanisms in place, yet several billions of naira have been budgeted and spent by the illegal interim managements and their backers in the Buhari regime. In all, close to one trillion Naira has been spent by these interim administrations but no significant projects have been executed. Using a system of subterfuge and prebendalism, monies have been paid for projects unexecuted and those totally outside of the scope of the NDDC and of no benefit to the people of the oil bearing Niger Delta States. In some cases, the perpetrators have not only been fingered but have themselves exposed their malfeasance such as in 2020 when a National Assembly probe unearthed monumental fraud by the then Interim Management Committee headed by Prof. Keme Pondei who, unable to justify evidence of fraud by his committee, fainted at the hearing which was being televised live on National TV! The 122-page Senate Report and Resolutions from the investigations revealed mindboggling extra budgetary expenditures by the IMC. It revealed how the NDDC Interim Management Committee (IMC) blew N81.5 billion in just a couple of months on fictitious contracts, frivolities, and in breach of extant financial and public procurement laws. The Senate therefore recommended that the IMC should refund the sum of N4.923 Billion to the Federation Account, and that the IMC should be disbanded, while the substantive board should be inaugurated to manage the Commission in accordance with the law.

Indeed, it has been a bazaar of waste under the interim managements since 2019. Several petitions to federal government agencies have alleged and provided evidence of a grand larceny at the NDDC under the interim management committees and sole administrator, yet, the Buhari Administration has acted like it is comfortable with their corruption and abuse of due process. The Buhari Administration has neither prosecuted the allegations nor punished anyone for infractions. It has shown what many Niger Delta people consider an unparalleled disdain for the Niger Delta region, forcing a concerted opposition to the president and his party, the All Progressives Congress. As things stand today with the NDDC, the APC is imperiled and many Niger Deltans are waiting to vote against the party in next year’s general election.

President Buhari still has a chance to correct these wrongs and do right even as he winds down on his Presidency. The starting point is to inaugurate a substantive board of the commission in compliance with the NDDC Act and to give a sense of belonging to the peoples of the nine constituent states of the NDDC as well as other stakeholders.

The NDDC Act provides that the nine constituent states and other stakeholders be represented on the board. This is to ensure that the constituent states are not shortchanged in the allocation and execution of projects. In the last three years under the Interim contraptions, indigenes of the constituent states have complained of not being represented, a direct fallout of the absence of a board. This is not justifiable by any stretch, a point that has been made by national and regional stakeholders.

A legion of stakeholder groups across the nine constituent states of the NDDC have made it clear that they cannot stomach any longer the abuse the breach of the NDDC Act and exploitation of their common resources.

Niger Deltans are also accusing the Buhari Administration of discrimination and double standards. They point out that whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly inaugurated Board in place (since May 2019) in line with its NEDC Act thereby guaranteeing proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last three years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act. To the detriment of the entire Niger Delta region, these illegal interim contraptions have been used to fleece the NDDC of its funds in the last three years.

It is clear that President Buhari must redeem his image among the people of the region by ensuring that the NDDC Act of 2000 is fully implemented by inaugurating a Governing Board of the commission for equitable representation of the people of the Niger Delta region. To do otherwise will spell not just disaster for the region but also for the president’s legacy and his party, the APC which is finding it hard to canvass support for the party in the Niger Delta region.

Mr. Timi Ebibai writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.