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 Reps move to reposition NDDC

Reps move to reposition NDDC

THE NATION

The House of Representatives has began the process of reforming and repositioning the Niger Delta Development commission (NDDC).

The bill seeks to provide minimum qualification for those to be appointed into management position within the commission and proscribe minimum standard has passed first reading in the House.

Chairman of the House Committee on NDDC, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo who disclosed this in an interview in his office said the intention of the House is to leave behind a well-structured organization that will have an unparalleled level of efficiency in terms of legislative frame work for people coming after us.

He said it was an irony that the law establishing the commission does not provide any punishment for any infraction committed within the commission as well as minimum qualification for the Managing Director and Executive Directors.

He said “the desire to contribute our own quota to the development of the country is the reason why we are here in the first place. We have put our hands on the plough to get a commission and a Niger Delta and a country of our dream and we are not holding back.

“Just Wednesday, we had the first reading of the NDDC repeal and establishment bill. The journey for the rebranding of the NDDC will not end with the issue of the probe. That is just a very minor aspect of the whole process.

“Our major desire is to hand over a well-structured organization that will have an unparalleled level of efficiency in terms of legislative frame work for people coming after us. For an organization to develop, you have to concentrate on building strong institutions rather than strong personalities.

“For this reason, we are going to work on the laws of the NDDC to make abuse of office impossible; to make it difficult for anybody to abuse office. We have to amend our laws to make sure that when people come into a particular office, they will not circumvent that office.

“I want to assure you that by the grace of the Almighty God, every kobo of the Niger Delta people work for the people of the Niger Delta. We will ensure that NDDC will be a platform for the rebirth and transformation of the Niger Delta.

“We will do our best at this level to ensure that our oversight functions are done in line with global best practices and every kobo appropriated will be accounted for, for the development of the people. We have started it. This happened to be the first time in the 21 years of the NDDC that such a thing is happening. It showed that the will is not absent.

“We have the will and the support of the leadership to do all that is needed to be done to transform the Niger Delta region. The Niger Delta region gives more than 70 percent of the revenue of this country and the money coming into the Niger Delta region is enough to transform the region.

“But over the years, there has been nothing to show for it. It makes me sad as a Niger Deltan. Now that God has given us this opportunity to contribute our quota, we will be very unfair to generations yet unborn and will be abusing the grace of God on our live if we do not take a decisive action of making the commission to work.

“I am happy that the new Interim Administrator came and we can see what he is trying to do and very soon, they will commissioning the headquarters building. That is a very big achievement because an agency spending trillions cannot house itself. What an irony. We hope the commission will work to the satisfaction of the people.

“The bill is not an amendment bill. We are repealing the act because there are so many things that are not right. The NDDC is one act that has no punishment for whatever you do and when you don’t have deterrent measures, definitely there will be abuse of office.

“Secondly, there is over politicization of the commission and that is why the commission is why as an instrument to foster political interest. You must pick one. It is either you want to play politics or you want to do development and for us, we are setting a commission for development and not for politicking.

“You have an MD who sits and control billions and yet, there is no basic qualification for those who will head the commission. So, we should have basic qualification that should take away from politics.

“In all organisations that are working, there is basic qualification for the head because once the head is bad, it affects everybody. You also have somebody who is a Doctor being appointed Executive Director in charge of project and you are supposed to go and inspect multi-billion bridges and yet you don’t have the technical capacity for that. If you must be in that position, you must be a registered engineer with certain level of experience. We are looking at all these lacuna.

“We saw issues of remittances to NNDC. By virture of the act, there is no punishment for non -remittance. We have worked the law in such a way that the power to collect these revenue lies with the FIRS and remove the third party gap of agents collecting the revenue. So, we have to amend the law to make it more workable.

“Stakeholders’ management is not known to the NDDC act and peace is very key to the development of that region. Is you don’t have those saddled with that responsibility, issue of peace management becomes impossible.

“We have to also look at the number of politicians we can have on the board at any given time. We must be able to balance politics and development. But when you are playing politics at the expense of development, then that is a massive disservice to the people that you have taken an oath to serve.”

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