The Federal Government has announced a substantive CEO at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), Bernard Okumagba from Delta State. The order also asked the serving acting CEO, Professor Nelson Brambaifa from Bayelsa State, to hand over to another interim CEO pending the Senate approval of the substantive one.
The Senate is on 8-week recess and may take some time before giving the Commission a board. While this lasts, one fiery and no-nonsense woman is to act. Her name is Akwagaga Lelegima Enyia.
You may wish to meet her because whoever sits astride the NDDC sits atop N300billion annual budget and on decisions over 800 ongoing projects and programmes with thousands of contractors and consultants hovering over the 8-storey tower named after Dappa-Biriye. More than 100 proposals fly to the Commission every week and hundreds of requests to meet whoever makes final decisions there, especially now that there is no board there.
You may need to know that Akwagaga is from Tombia, one of the few upland towns in Bayelsa State. He married to a Rivers man, thus having valid rights in both states. She has children and they must be grown up, but what many may quickly want to know is that she is a disciplinarian. Some call her ‘no-nonsense’ woman.
She is a director in the Rivers State NDDC office. There, she is known to insist on due process, discipline, and order. Many say they do not know how contractors would have to face her. She displays deep Christian behaviours such that nothing can be done outside Christ. She starts every event with songs and praises and heavy prayers for the Commission or wherever a man feeds from.
The first day after her takeover, she came to work before 8am and many directors were running about to meet up. It is not for show, some said, but the way she works.
Akwagaga graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt in 1983. She also has a Master of Philosophy and a PhD in Marine Biology from the Rivers State University (formerly University of Science and Technology).
She joined the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) as Assistant Director, Fisheries, in 1993.
Agenda:
The new Acting Managing Director met with the staff and promised to bring positive change to the Commission. She made the pledge during a press briefing shortly after her arrival at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt to assume duties as the new CEO of the interventionist agency.
She stated: “I have been charged to do things right and we will start to do things right by the grace of God. By the time I am through with my assignment, there will be a positive change in NDDC. I believe God will help me.”
Akwagaga took over the leadership of the NDDC from Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, who led an interim management that was dissolved on August 27, 2019.
The new Chief Executive Officer said: “I have a mandate to oversee the smooth running of the NDDC until the substantive board is cleared to assume office. I believe that if we work together, we will achieve the objectives for which the NDDC was set up.
“To see that this foremost interventionist agency will progress and prosper during this short period, I appeal to the press to cooperate with us to see that the goals of setting up this commission are achieved.”
The Acting Managing Director also addressed management and staff of the Commission, urging them to play their own parts in facilitating the rapid development of the Niger Delta region. She noted: “If everyone does his or her bit, we will succeed in turning things around for good in NDDC.”
She promised to sanitise the commission and restore it to its former glory, stating that if everyone discharges his/her duties diligently, the negative image of the Commission would be corrected and people would want to be associated with it.
Akwagaga, a specialist in marine biology, became a substantive Director in NDDC in April 2010 and was in charge of the Agriculture and Fisheries Directorate.
Ignatius Chukwu
