President Muhammadu Buhari recently directed that the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2001 to 2019 should be probed. The president gave the directive when the nine governors of the oil-producing states met with him in Abuja. The oil-bearing states are Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Abia, Delta, Edo and Ondo. Before the meeting, there had been relentless calls on the government to probe the activities of the interventionist agency, which was established to ameliorate the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region.
The NDDC was set up in 2000 by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration as a response to strident complaints of neglect by the people of the oil-producing region. It was also expected that the agency would address the environmental degradation caused by years of oil exploration in the region. The Act that set up the NDDC stipulated that it should be funded by the Federal Government and the International Oil Companies (IOCs). Since inception, the agency has received billions of naira. But there is not much to show for the huge money allocated to the agency.
That is why the governors of the oil-bearing states in the region are dissatisfied with the operations of the agency as well as the opaque nature of its administration. They believe that the agency is another cesspool of corruption where people make easy money. They accuse the agency of poor choice and shoddy handling of projects, uncompleted or abandoned jobs and lack of support and co-ordination of activities with the state and local governments in their various areas of operation. In the same vein, President Buhari pointed out that there was little to show for the money at the disposal of the agency.
This is, indeed, a worrisome development. It is unfortunate that those in charge of the agency have seen it as an avenue to make quick money. They have also used it to enable their friends and family members become rich overnight. The agency has been deployed to serve the political interests of some politicians instead of attending to the needs of oil-bearing states. The NDDC, like similar agencies of government, has been tainted with corruption. Many Nigerians and oil-bearing communities have commended the president for instituting the probe.
We commend the president for taking the initiative to probe the agency. The government must make sure that members of the probe panel are given the freedom to diligently carry out the onerous assignment. On no account should anybody be treated as a sacred cow before, during and after the probe. We plead that the outcome of the probe should be made public. We urge those in charge of the probe to ensure that the operations of the agency during the period covered by the probe are thoroughly investigated. The panel should examine the contracts awarded and the extent of their execution. It must expose all corrupt deals in the agency as well as those behind them. Any embezzled money must be accounted for and recovered from those involved.
We believe that if the country must make the desired socio-economic progress, agencies such as the NDDC must be made to work efficiently. Therefore, we urge the president to ensure that the probe is logically concluded and in good time too. We hope that by the time the audit is completed and the report made public, it would serve as an example to other agencies of government that the law may be slow, but it will eventually catch up with offenders. At the same time, it is important that the president should extend the probe to other agencies where there are serious allegations of financial malfeasance. That is one of the best ways to ensure that the war against corruption is truly on course.