NDDC:There is no impediment to inauguration of senate-confirmed board-group

Niger Delta Elders’ Forum (NDEF) has restated that there is no impediment to the inauguration of the Senate-confirmed board of NDDC, describing insinuations that litigations may stall substantive board as “unnecessary subterfuge being peddled by anti-Niger Delta agents to distract attention from the legitimate demands of authentic stakeholders for the inauguration of the NDDC board in accordance with the law, the NDDC Act.”

In a statement by its National President, Chief Tonye Ogbogbula, NDEF stated that “there is a substantive Board for NDDC which was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari. The names of the board members were forwarded by President Buhari to the Senate on October 18, 2019 for confirmation, and which the Senate dutifully confirmed on November 5, 2019.”

NDEF drew attention to what it described as a “vexatious story” which appeared in The Sun newspaper of September 5, 2022, titled “NDDC: Oshiomhole, Akeredolu, Sylva battle over MD; Litigations may stall substantive Board.”

According to the group, “the said report, which has no verifiable attribution to any credible government official stated that the board of NDDC may not be constituted soon as some stakeholders across the oil rich region have perfected plans to approach the courts for a proper interpretation of the Act establishing the interventionist agency.”

In his clarification, Chief Tonye Ogbogbula stated that President Muhamnadu Buhari had forwarded to the Senate for confirmation the appointment of a board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) via a letter, which he personally signed, dated 18th October, 2019.

According to NDEF, “specifically, President Buhari in the letter sought the Senate’s confirmation for Dr Pius Odubu (Edo) as chairman of the NDDC Board, Chief Bernard Okumagba (Delta) as Managing Director, Engr Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom) as Executive Director, Projects, and Maxwell Oko (Bayelsa) as Executive Director, Finance and Administration. Others listed in the President’s letter of to the Senate included Prophet Jones Erue, representing Delta State, Chief Victor Ekhalor (Edo), Nwogu N Nwogu (Abia), Theodore A Allison (Bayelsa), Victor Antai (Akwa Ibom), Maurice Effiwatt (Cross River), Olugbenga Edema (Ondo), Hon Uchegbu Chidiebere Kyrian representing Imo state.

The rest are Aisha Murtala Mohammed from Kano state representing North West, Shuaib Ardo Zubairu from Adamawa representing North East and Ambassador Abdullahi M Bage from Nasarawa representing North Central, on the board respectively.”

The group further stated that the President’s letter “personally signed by him” reads: “In accordance with the provision of Section 2(2)(a) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) (Establishment) Act, 2000, I write to forward, for confirmation by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the under listed nominees for appointment into the NDDC board, to occupy the positions indicated against their names.” President Buhari, in the letter, expressed hope that “the Senate will consider and confirm the nominees in the usual expeditious manner”.

NDEF noted that “accordingly, the written request, which was read on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 by its President, Ahmad Lawan, was given expeditious consideration by the upper legislative chamber, which directed its standing committee on NDDC, to carry out screening exercise on all the nominees and report back within a week. The Senate’s standing committee carried out the screening exercise on 15 out of the 16 nominees on Thursday, October 31, 2019, upon which the Senate in Plenary confirmed their appointments on November 5, 2019.”

The group recalled that after the nominees were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on the 5th of November 2019, “President Buhari asked that the inauguration of the Board should be put on hold pending the completion of the forensic audit, for which an Interim Management Committee was appointed for the NDDC. The Forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari since one year ago, on September 2, 2021.” NDEF however regretted that the NDDC “which is the foremost Niger Delta regional development agency and which was set up to right the wrongs in the Niger Delta is still being run by a sole administrator appointed in breach of the NDDC Act.”

Ogbogbula insisted that since President Muhammadu Buhari had already nominated a Board for the NDDC in October 2019 whose members were “vetted by all relevant agencies of the federal government following which they were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on November 5 2019, they are only now waiting to be inaugurated.” He also observed that President Buhari has “restated his intention to inaugurate the Board on the completion of the forensic audit, which commitment he restated on Thursday, July 28, 2022 while declaring open a retreat for management of the ministry of Niger Delta affairs and NDDC at the state house banquet hall, Presidential villa, Aso Rock, Abuja.

Niger Delta Elders’ Forum also restated that “there are no court orders anywhere in the country impeding the inauguration of the board of NDDC which was appointed by President Buhari and duly confirmed by the Senate on the 5th of November 2019. What happened was that after the nominees were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on the 5th of November 2019, President Buhari asked that the inauguration of the Board should be put on hold pending the completion of a forensic audit in the NDDC. The Forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari since one year ago, on September 2, 2021.”

Reacting to the newspaper report which also alluded to some “plans to approach the courts,” as litigation that may “stall substantive board,” NDEF stated that it “shows the level of desperation being exhibited by anti-Niger Delta agents, inside and outside the corridors of power, who wish to throw the region into turmoil.” The group emphasized that “the only and existing valid court order today is the March 2022, ruling by the Federal High Court sitting in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State which 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.”

NDEF therefore urged President Buhari to inaugurate the board and management of the Commission, “in compliance with the law to ensure that the nine constituent states of the region will have fair and equitable representation in the Commission in line with the NDDC Act 2000 which brought the interventionist agency into existence and made it mandatory for the President to appoint a board and management for the Commission, subject to confirmation by the Senate.”

According to Ogbogbula, “the most salient issue that the authentic stakeholders of the Niger Delta has consistently demanded, and which the President also made commitments on is to end the illegal Interim Management / sole administratorship at the NDDC and inaugurate the Board of the Commission upon receipt of the forensic audit, in compliance with the law, and which commitment he made to the nation on June 24, 2021 when he received the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) in Aso Rock, Abuja.”

The group recalled that when President Buhari received the leadership of Ijaw National Congress (INC) in Aso Rock, Abuja on June 24, 2021, the President made a commitment to the nation. The President said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.” The group regretted that the Forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari since one year ago, on September 2, 2021, but the NDDC “which is the foremost Niger Delta regional development agency and which was set up to right the wrongs in the Niger Delta is still being run by a sole administrator appointed in breach of the NDDC Act.”

NDEF emphasized that it aligns with other authentic stakeholders to restate that the “preservation of a sole administrator or an interim administration in the management of the Commission is not only a breach of the NDDC Act 2000 but an affront on the long-deprived people of the region who have had to endure three years of the foremost agency being arbitrarily run in breach of the law – the NDDC Act and in utter disregard of their need and the region’s development.”

NDEF also reminded President Buhari, the Federal Government, and indeed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the “continued administration of the NDDC by a sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the Board and Management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the Board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. In effect, nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act.”

NDEF also stated that “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.”

According to the group, “as stakeholders in the Niger Delta region we align with other credible voices in the region to emphasise that the Federal Government, President Buhari, and indeed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), should be concerned about the disdain of the Niger Delta people over the manner the NDDC has been handled, most especially administering the Commission with illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions for five years in this administration’s seven years in office, and therefore needs to end the ongoing illegality in NDDC if this government is to be remembered for good in the Niger Delta.”

NDEF therefore reminded President Buhari and the Federal Government that “all stakeholders are now awaiting the earnest inauguration of the NDDC Board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate since November 2019 in line with the NDDC Act to ensure fair representation of the nine constituent states, accountability in the utilisation of the NDDC funds, checks and balances and due process in the administration of the Commission.”