The huge debt of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), put at over N1.3 trillion, is the first issue to receive attention by the new management led by managing director, Nsima Ekere, former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, who took over the mantle of leadership on Monday.
This is as the outgoing acting managing director, Ibim Semenitari, said she moved the NDDC from mere 25 percent project completion she met in December 2015, to almost 50 percent by the time she left on November 7, 2016.
The handover ceremony took place in a tumultuous event witnessed by groups across the nine NDDC states, which massed at the gates of the expansive complex housing the headquarters of the 15-year-old Commission.
Ekere said the new board and management were committed to fashioning a new path for the commission, “and it is not the well-worn path that leads to failure, but the one least travelled which would make us trailblazers for the people and the region.”
He said his team was out to build a commission they must be proud of, that would meet its statutory obligations and mandate, and must adopt what he called 4-R Initiatives as strategic roadmap for the path they must all walk.
The first he mentioned is Restructuring of the NDDC balance sheet, saying the N1.3 trillion debt overhang must be dealt with to free funds for development. He also talked of reforming the governance protocols, restoring the commission’s core mandate, and reaffirming the collective commitment to doing what is right and proper.
Ekere said: “As we deal with reduced revenues as a result of a decline in global oil prices and economic sabotage which has crippled Nigeria’s oil operations, the NDDC needs to look to innovative and more efficient ways of doing things. We need to find new partners to help execute our mandate for the Niger Delta; strengthen existing relationships to ensure all stakeholders are working towards common goals and promote peace necessary for the development of the region.”
Focus now would be on intervention programmes that would deliver real measurable developmental outcomes for the region and its citizens. The five priorities of the NDDC going forward would be to focus on the following regional development/integration, ecological management & healthcare awareness, stakeholder engagement/work with development partners and NGOs, human capital development/youth engagement, and developing the non-oil sector thereby attracting new industries.
The new MD said there were many organisations at home and abroad that care about the Niger Delta and want credible partners to work with – and that this is an opportunity the NDDC cannot afford to waste in building a Niger Delta that they can all be proud of.
He said: “Over the next couple of weeks as the new management settles in, the doors will be open for dialogue about ideas, challenges and opportunities for creating a first rate institution that caters to the sustainable development of the Niger Delta and her people.”
In her handover remarks, Semenitari said she has moved the projects from 25 per cent completion she met in December 2015 to 50. She said the good thing about a relay race is that the goal is one, a medal. She said her passion was to add value to the oil region and that now, NDDC jobs orders are hot cakes in banks because of the new credibility in them.
Semenitari said, “The new NDDC narrative is in good hands”, and called on the staff to fully cooperate with the new team.
In his remarks, the new board chairman, the senator and SAN, Ndoma Egba, described Semeitari’s mission in the NDDC as remarkable. He said he was out to change the perception of the NDDC as a contract chamber, saying it was sad for the Commission to be known as a second stock exchange (where jobs contracts are won by those who have no competence to execute and resold to real contractors).
He said the board spent the idle months after their appointment in July 2016 to study the Commission and work out how to hit the ground running.
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