Since his first outing
as a Military Head of State in 1983, President Muhammadu Buhari has never
hidden his distaste for corrupt practices, especially in government
circles. It was no surprise that on assuming office in May 2015, he made
fighting corruption a top priority of his administration.
But four years after,
how has he fared in his self-declared war on corruption in the country? Has
financial malfeasance, particularly in government ministries, parastatals
and agencies reduced to the barest minimum? Sadly, that is not the case as
reported cases of malpractices regularly dot media headlines in the country,
indicating that the ugly monster of corruption is still alive and thriving.
A typical example is
the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Established in 2000 to
tackle the infrastructural, ecological and human capital challenges
of the Niger Delta region, this vital interventionistic agency has over the
years, been enmeshed in monumental financial mismanagement and rot that has all
but defeated the purpose for which it was established in the first place.
The Commission’s woes
are legion and there is not enough space
here to review them all. However, some of the
major practices that have deviated the Commission’s execution of
its mandate to deliver succour to the beleaguered people of the
Niger Delta region include: a plethora of abandoned
projects, huge indebtedness to contractors, duplication of contracts,
indiscriminate award of ‘emergency contracts’, outright embezzlement of
funds meant for projects, use of proxies by staff and
politicians to corner contracts which are hardly executed, sale
of contracts to ‘briefcase contractors’ and other irregularities.
It was no
surprise that the President’s recent call for a forensic audit of
the Commission’s affairs since inception, was well received by
concerned stakeholders as a way of clearing out the massive rot in the
agency and charting a new development paradigm for the region.
But even that laudable
gesture by the government is about to be truncated by the same set of people
that have held the Commission to ransom for years.
To the shock of the
good people of the Niger Delta,
an Interim Management Committee (IMC) was
clandestinely inaugurated by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator
Godswill Akpabio, on the very day the names of nominees to
the legitimately constituted Governing Board were sent
to the Senate by the President. Ironically, Senator
Akpabio is a critical stakeholder in the nomination of members
to this Board, by the selection of candidates for the
EDP role and Akwa Ibom State representative. The Board member
for Rivers state was co-opted into the Interim Management Committee
to become the Acting MD/CEO. Some will say this is politics as usual. To
most well-meaning folk, this smacks of treachery to your fellow
travelers.
This action by Senator
Akpabio has drawn a lot of flak and condemnation from different quarters, with
many stakeholders calling it illegality and usurpation of the role of the
duly constituted Board. The Senate has called the IMC illegal and advised the
Governing Board to immediately resume duties after they were recently cleared
by the Senate. The House of Representatives has also issued statements
condemning the IMC.
This raises questions
like “what does Akpabio want with the NDDC?” Reports and feelers
from insiders in the Commission indicate that the Minister hurriedly set up the
IMC to cover up alleged corrupt practices linked to ‘emergency contracts’
awarded mostly during the tenure of two previous Managing Directors of the
Commission, Chief Nsima Ekere and Prof. Nelson Brambaifa. During this
period between November 2016 and August 2019, about N1
trillion worth of illegally procured emergency contracts were awarded.
Out of these contracts, about N450 billion has been paid out to
date and up to N600 billion or more is outstanding.
Publicly available
records submitted to the Auditor-General of the Federation indicate
a total debt profile of about N1.3 trillion incurred from
legally procured contracts. Including the outstanding contracts from
emergency contract awards balloon the total outstanding liability to
a whopping N2 trillion.
These illegally
procured emergency contracts are at the heart of the planned forensic
audit. The progenitor for this situation seems to be Chief Nsima Ekere,
erstwhile Deputy Governor to Senator Godswill Akpabio when both were members
of PDP in 2011 but fell out after Ekere was forced to resign for
‘personal reasons’ in 2012. Both regrouped on the platform of the APC
to contest as Gubernatorial and Senatorial candidates respectively, during the
2019 elections. They both lost their bids.
Unfortunately, the
Commission was used as an ATM (to paraphrase the Minister in his recent press
statements) to fund these failed ambitions. Speculation is rife that the
protection of these transactions is what drives the Minister’s obsessive
interest in the NDDC. As an Igbo proverb says, “a toad does not run in
the daytime for nothing.” The Minister, being a huge beneficiary
of the emergency contract scam would not want his deeds exposed through an
independent audit.
Hence, his desperation
to subvert the President’s good intentions by setting up this ‘kangaroo’
interim management committee to carry out an audit in an agency in which he has
been a major beneficiary.
When did the
ex-Governor of Akwa Ibom State become a poster child for the anti-corruption
crusade of the Federal Government? We as a people have
become very short-sighted. It seems the
constant barrage of unresolved corruption cases has created
a force field that has stunned our brains into a collective amnesia. This is
the only explanation for why Senator Akpabio, who was still being
investigated by the EFCC as recently as August 2018, can become a Minister
in a government committed to fighting corruption, and then be allowed to
superintend a forensic audit of an organization which he and his
erstwhile Deputy looted to fund their political ambitions.
It is an assault
on our collective senses for the Minister who is still undergoing an investigation by the EFCC over N108 billion worth
of fraud cases to supervise the forensic
audit of the Commission.
We appeal to President
Buhari to call Senator Akpabio to order and prevent the present
polarization of views and fissure in polity caused by this brazen hijack of the
President’s agenda. The Niger Delta region is critical to the economic
wellbeing of the country and the peace in the region should not be threatened
by the actions of a few reactionary elements surrounding the Minister and his
minions.
The good peace loving
people of the Niger Delta want the illegal Interim Management Committee removed
immediately and the constitutionally recognized Governing Board sworn
in to perform its duties of managing and supervising the
affairs of the Commission, subject to the direction and control
of the President, as enshrined in the NDDC Establishment Act 2000.
As we say in
Africa, “one man cannot stand
against the village.” Senator Godswill Akpabio cannot
override the wishes and desires of over 40 million people of the Niger
Delta. Mr. President, we await your wise and urgent
intervention that will reinforce your long held desire to
tame the corruption monster. Time is ticking.
Chief Pius Okoni writes from Port Harcourt,
Rivers State
.
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