My thoughts on the NDDC crisis – Tanure Ojaide

Tanure Ojaide has lent his voice to the ongoing discussion surrounding the alleged corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Read his thought-provoking opinion below:

As one born and raised in the Niger Delta and in my writings advocated the welfare of the people and the restoration of the degraded environment, I am shocked, ashamed, and enraged by the atrocities and corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) being reported.

READ ALSO: Tanure Ojaide Alleges Conspiracy Of Silence Over NDDC Scandal

The betrayal of those appointed there to deploy part of what the Federal Government gives back to the region for development of their exploited and environmentally damaged area is not only reprehensible but heinous.

The corruption seething in the NDDC is lethal and has reduced this region that produces about 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings in oil and gas to one of the poorest areas in the entire world.

Now we the people of the Niger Delta cannot blame the collusion of the Federal Government and the multinational companies for all of our development problems.
We have to blame ourselves.

The same Niger Deltans meant to administer the development of their region have frittered away the huge resources available.

The rage cannot go until something is done.

Let this issue not end with the testimonies of Senator Godswill Akpabio (Minister of Niger Delta Affairs), Dr. Joi Nunieh and Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei (the former and current Interim Managing Directors), “the forensic auditors,” and others.

Senators and other politicians have secured humongous payments for contracts which they did not carry out. Those who earn monthly salaries and allowances in the Commission gave themselves a “palliative package.”

The extent of the rot is still unfolding and more iniquities will inevitably be exposed. This is shameful and measures must be taken for redemption of the NDDC and the region.

I ask some questions and make recommendations: As outsiders have asked, what are Niger Delta folks doing about the looting of their resources?
They are disturbingly silent.

The youths that have been the vanguard of resource control should come out in protests to be counted against the thieves of the funds meant to develop and transform their region.

Civil society needs to come alive in the Niger Delta and academics, writers, opinion leaders, among others, need to stand up and be counted in this rage and the restoration of what has been looted from the populace.

The same goes for all owners of the land— traders, artisans, unemployed youths, etc.

Their patrimony is being stolen before their very eyes by their kith and kin. There seems to be also a conspiracy of silence by the region’s governors and other political office holders who seem to be caught in a bloodand-soil loyalty trap.

Why have we not heard anything from the six governors of the Niger Delta as well as Niger Delta Senators and members of the House of Representatives?

Are they part of the problem that none seems to have come out to condemn in categorical terms the seething corruption?

I demand that the Federal Government should set up a committee of experts, technocrats, and representatives of the Niger Delta people and not the bureaucratic “forensic audit” panel, give it a maximum of three months to establish the contracts given and supposed to have been executed and check whether or not they were really carried out.

That investigative committee should establish what each culprit has stolen or stashed away and publish the report for Niger Deltans and Nigerians to see.

All monies stolen should be returned within a short time or the persons remain in jail for the rest of their lives.

The NDDC should be reorganized with checks and balances to operate in a more transparent way so that the people and the state governments are aware of what the budget is and what programs the money is spent on as well as follow through with their successful execution.

I want the National Assembly to know that though this problem adversely affects the Niger Delta, it is a Nigerian problem.

As such the National Assembly and pertinent institutions in the criminal justice community should strengthen and broaden the laws that deal with what is essentially economic treason.

The auditing system in Nigeria should be reorganized to catch these big rogues.
Tax records and bank statements, among others, should be deployed to monitor large and suspicious movements of money.

I support Comrade Joseph Evah’s call for the NDDC to be moved from the Ministry of Niger Delta to the Presidency.

The current revelations should be investigated and not be treated the usual Nigerian way of crying foul but getting nothing done.

We know those who have been in charge and how much money the Federal Government has pumped into the NDDC and so let the papers be opened for everybody to read.

A situation in which those appointed to take care of the welfare of a people deprive them of development is unacceptable.

Ojaide, NNOM, FNAL, Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.