3 July 2008
Lagos — The Niger Delta region is Nigeria's and Africa's largest marshland, and the third largest wetland in the world. The region has a steadily growing population put at about 40 million people as of 2006. The population growth has not been commensurate with infrastructural and human development. However, investigation shows that with huge development projects by NDDC scattered in the region, the commission is poised to make a difference in the area. Roland Ogbonnaya writes
Mr. Dumni Ogbum is about 47 years old and the youths' leader in the community. He said that as a school they were used to swimming across the water to go to school in the next village as there was none in their own village. Ogbum said they will remove their uniform and hold it aloft and swim to the other side of the river to dress up for school.
Most children from Abua community in Rivers State went to school going through this daily ritual until 2003 when the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) came to their rescue. The commission did not only award the contract of constructing a befitting road but also added a bridge to it. Both adult and children in Abua, Owerewere and Ochigba communities can now drive from one village to another against the swimming experience Ogbum and other went through in his youth.
Ogbum and other young men who gathered at the construction site recently on the road said the communities appreciate the effort of NDDC in providing the road and bridge for them. According to him, for the people life has improved and they can now add value to their lives. "We are happy about the road as this will improve the economic welfare of the people. However, all we want is the contractor s to expedite action on the job as well as carry the communities along," Ogbum added.
The story of the people of Etche and Omuma local governments is more touching. Both local governments are in Rivers State, but the people to visit each other; they have to go through Abia State. The cheering news for the people is that by the time the construction of the Okehi-Ebri-Omuma road with the 120 metre long bridge is completed, there would be no need to go through another state to visit each other. The construction of the road and bridge was awarded to Homan Engineering Company Limited in 2004 at the cost of N1,274,286,195.00. Sixty per cent of the contract has been executed and for the people life will never be the same again when the whole job is completed.
From Rivers State to Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom and other oil producing states are one huge construction site as NDDC, according to its mandate are developing the creeks and the hinter lands in an effort to make life of the rural people very meaningful. The commission has engaged contractors for the contractors for the construction of over 50 road and bridge projects in the states and running into billions of naira.
Some of these projects include the construction of Otuasega-Obedum-Emirikpo-Anyu-Emelego road and bridge, Elele Alimini-Akpabu Itu-Erema road, market and bridge, construction of Ogbogu internal roads and drains amongst others which are in different states of construction in Rivers State.
In Bayelsa, some of the ongoing projects that are on different degrees of completion visited by some journalists recently include the Odi Trofani road/bridge phase I and II contracts, Otuake-Onuebum road and bridge, the Kaiama shoreline protection and the production of portable water running into billions of naira.
Over the years, government efforts have been made to address the Niger Delta problems: The Willinks Commission-1958, which led to the proclamation of Niger Delta as Special Area in 1959; the Niger Delta Development Board of 1959; the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDBDA) established in 1976; the Special Fund for Oil Producing Areas by Revenue Act of 1981; Presidential Task Force for the Development of Oil Producing Areas (from 1.5 per cent Special Fund)-1989; the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) which received three per cent derivation in 1992; implementation of 13 per cent derivation fund, 2000; the Lt-Gen. Alexander Ogomudia Committee, 2002, which recommended 50 per cent oil derivation for oil producing states: "People of the Niger Delta should be made to participate in the oil industry in the areas of crude oil and product lifting, licensed oil bunkering, oil bloc and marginal field allocation," the committee said.
Other government efforts to attend to the region's problems include: The Peter Odili Committee on Disarmament; Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Committee on Empowerment-2006; NNPC Emphasis on Local Content development in the Oil Industry; Establishment of the Presidential Council of Coastal States and appointment of Honorary Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta-2006, and then the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) established by an Act of 2000. The NDDC was established by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich Niger-Delta region of southern Nigeria.
However, these efforts have failed to address the region's myriad of problems for a numbers reasons: poor crisis management approach to project conception and delivery; discontinuity in government and policy/programme inconsistency; inadequate funding; white elephant projects and duplications; official recklessness and corruption; lack of political commitment; minimal if any partnering, and non-engagement of civil society; weak coordination and therefore low synergy between tiers of government and development agencies as well as lack of a coherent and integrated Master Plan for the development of the region.
The failure to adequately attend to the Niger Delta problems has combined to throw up varied reactions from the people. Various groups have been formed to agitate for a share in the oil profit: Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Martyrs Brigade, Coalition of Militant Action in the Niger Delta, Niger Delta People's Salvation Front, Joint Revolutionary Council and Militant Camps across the Niger Delta, among many others. Meanwhile, the official response to these groups' action has been the deployment of troops to quell a people's reaction to oppression and suppression, like the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), which is still mediating in the region.
However, the establishment of the NDDC seems to have made more veritable impact than previous efforts. The Commission operates under the mandate of improving social and environmental conditions in the South-South region, a challenge acknowledged as horrific by one observer. To achieve its mandate, the Commission's board identified the following areas of focus: development of social and physical infrastructure; technology; Economic revival and prosperity of the region; ecological/environmental remediation and stability, and human development.
To execute its numerous projects, the commission between 2001 and December 2007 received a total of N93.458bn from the Federal Government and N184.833bn from the oil companies. Gross total: N277.3 billion. But this is by far less than what is statutorily due the interventionist agency. As a result, there has continually been funding gaps in the last six years. For instance, in 2001, statistics from the Commission indicate that, while N30.230 billion was due the Commission in line with the NDDC Act, only N7.5 billion was released, leaving a difference of N22.730 billion.
At the end of 2007, the Commission got only N110.315 billion out of a whooping N436.547 billion. This leaves unreleased money amounting to N326.232 billion unspent. It was also discovered that similar shortfall in releases of funds due the Commission took place consistently for six years in the contributions by the oil and gas companies. For instance, whereas N233.448 billion was expected as contributions from the oil and gas companies operating in the country, only N184.833 billion was received, leaving a difference of N38.615 billion.
Notwithstanding the shortfall in funding of the NDDC, and in keeping with its motto: "determined to make a difference in the Niger Delta Region," the commission, as an interventionist agency has made tremendous impact on the people of the region. For instance, since 2001, the Commission has undertaken 2416 projects, and several hundreds of programmes in the areas of human development, education, empowerment, free health, agriculture, among others. Of these projects, 871 have been completed as at December 2007, spread across the nine states of the region; while 1545 projects are ongoing, and would soon be completed, to reduce the frontiers of poverty, illiteracy and poor healthcare delivery in the region.
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