To ensure long-term, if not eternal progress, of the beleaguered Niger Delta Development Commission, the NDDC, more than ever since its birth on June 5, 2000, needs to clothe its internal and external life with watchwords that have progressive prefixes of re.
Some of the words with progressive of re-s include reactivation, refine, rebirth, renaissance, reborn, regeneration, renew, reinvent, among others. The meaning of the words, which most of them can be used interchangeably could be better grasped with the meaning of reborn or born-again. The history and etymology of born-again is traced to the admonition of Jesus Christ that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Born-again connotes and denotes giving a new life to an old life that has malfunctioned or degenerated, for regeneration to take place for effective and efficient functioning. It also entails replacing a wrongful life with a rightful one. Renewal is full of multifarious vitality. Imagine what would be bedroom, fieldwork or boardroom performance of an octogenarian re-vitalized with biological vigour and vitality of a teenager.
Where and when rightness and optimization appear to have been achieved, rebirth means topping up greatness for continuation and sustainable glory. After all, life without advancement is stagnation. Since individual and collective human life runs in continuum, stagnation is injurious and impediment to human development. Therefore, renewal is a desideratum for human life.
Chronologically, 23-year old NDDC is not too young for its fruitage to be seen and savour by millions in Nigeria, at least in the present nine oil producing states that it was set up to dress certain salient needs of the impoverished region. Unfortunately, the federal agency has been fraught with frauds on all fronts. It is not arguable that perception is not a fact. But when perception is so commonplace to the extent that the subjects and objects of the perception cannot make heartily denial of its existence, the actuality of the claim remains incontrovertible.
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There are pieces of real life shows from the NDDC that have potential of being blockbusters if gathered for the Nollywood industry. Recall the allegation in 2008 of its then chairman Sam Edem, making a burnt offering of millions of naira as ritualistic obligations and reportedly paying N1 billion fees to black magician for a brighter fortune. In 2022, Nsima Ekere, former Managing Director of the commission was detained by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency for allegedly laundering NDDC’s funds to the tune of N47 billion. The Godswill Akpabio-Joi Nunieh counter-accusation on national television remains a bestseller episode on its own. The professorial fainting of Kemebradikumo Pondei while testifying at the House of Representative committee that investigated corruption in the commission he was heading then is still fresh in the sand of history.
Akpabio once labeled the NDDC “a cash cow” and an “ATM machine”, only for him to be later accused of causing undue milking of cash from the cow and reckless withdrawing of cash from the Port Harcourt-based ATM machine. Even as judicial decision is yet to be established on the various charges of allegation trailing a number of persons at the agency, the public is not waiting for the due process of law before spreading stories of corruption in the commission as gospel truth. And, at the court of public opinion no one listens to the federal lawmakers’ instruction of “off your mic.”
NDDC has inherent burden. The worrisome situation has been of worry to Samuel Ogbuku, who became the Managing Director of the commission on January 4 after passing through procedural stages stipulated by the law setting up the commission. Although no one sees his heart, from words proceeding from his mouth and works of his hands since assumption of duty, Ogbuku could be said to be on re-birth mission at NDDC.
From engagement with relevant stakeholders, quest for public-private-partnership, focusing on the core mandate of the commission, working towards integrating the nine oil producing states, through project such as railway network to link the nine oil producing states, to working in tandem with the NDDC Act, the new management appears poised to pen down a new perception for the commission. It may be hard for one to conclude that the NDDC is now born-again, yet evidences abound that Ogbuku-led NDCC has seen the need to embrace the path to born-againism.
The truth is that no matter the distance of trip on the path to born-againism embarked upon by the Ogbuku management team, the NDDC would not get the much-needed revival to get the oil-rich states to the Promised Land. This is because problem besetting the commission does not start and end at the NDDC. Recently, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who once chaired the commission, was factual enough in asserting in newspaper interviews that intractable challenges of the commission go beyond its management. He identified unstable management and interference as some of its encumbrances. According to the erudite Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the interferences come from the presidency, the National Assembly and ministers.
The interference is getting stronger now as certain principalities at the National Assembly, along with a foe-turned-friend of APC are still setting their eyes on the NDDC, notwithstanding that they may not be innocent of the reign of rots that have been rocking the commission. Unfortunately, the law setting up the NDDC has always been observed in breaches by the presidency. The worst being the last four years of Muhammadu Buhari administration, in which five successive ad hoc managements was made to pilot the affairs of the commission. Whereas, the law makes provision for a secured tenure of four years, the commission’s board, which was inaugurated in January, was dissolved in June. That is another burden amidst born-againism trip currently undertaken at the NDDC.
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But the present presidency is discerning enough to know those to listen to without adhering to. Aside integrity-conscious Ndoma-Egba, the presidency may wish to give attention to the likes of Prof Peter Esuh of the University of Uyo, who though he has had some rapports with successive heads of the agency as well as other stakeholders in the Niger Delta, would neither compromise nor economise truth, as he demonstrated recently at a workshop for NDDC’s corporate affairs department.
Fortunately, Ogbuku still remains NDDC’s helmsman. But even so, Ogbuku’s four-year tenure, which is due for expiration in January 2027, is susceptible to being scuttled anytime, all because Nigeria’s lawmakers, executors and sometimes, interpreters, are law breakers! If Ogbuku is asked to quit NDDC today, it would not be new; it would only be renewal of wrongdoings, vicious cycle of instability, and that the renewed hope of the Bola Tinubu administration is renewing hopelessness for not changing from the usual route of legal unrighteousness.
Must Nigeria continue on the path of wrongness so that excuses for the country’s failure may abound?
Retardation after rebirth is more disastrous. Those who pass through such course hardly have another opportunity to reinvent their life. If NDDC is made to return to its inglorious life, it is doubtful being able to remake itself thereafter.
Let Ogbuku’s four-year tenure run. Let relevant governmental bodies and the general public mount a watch on the journey of born-againism. It is not about the boyish bubbling of the Bayelsa-born peaceful activist-turned-administrator. It is about doing the rightful by allowing the law to run its course unimpeded. It is about discarding with often used wrong formulae that have never given the NDDC the right answer.
If there is any word with prefix of re other than those in the group outlined above that the NDDC needed so much at this point, it is the word, retreat – a retreat from the formula causing instability in the management of the commission.
· Ekanem sent this article from nsikak4media@gmail.com