NDDC – All The Scandals Since Its Inception Explained

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is an agency that was founded by the Federal Government during the President Obasanjo-led administration in the year 2000. The agency was established with the intention of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Unfortunately, since its inception, NDDC has been infamous for an imposing number of scandals and grave allegations that border on financial crimes including diversion of funds intended for healthcare, education and the general well-being of the Niger Delta peoples, racketeering of contracts, abuse of power for private gains, nepotism among other unsavoury things that incriminate the leadership of the Commission. 

Today, we take a look at the all-time dirtiest scandals of NDDC since its inception.

EFCC says they recovered over $153 million alleged to have been forfeited by ex-petroleum minister, Timi Alaibe and other past NDDC directors.

At the inception of NDDC in 2000, Mr. Timi Alaine was appointed the Executive Director of Finance and Administration of the Commission. Upon assumption of office, Mr. Alaibe and other directors of the commission were mandated to conceive and implement plans for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta. These plans were integrated into what is known today as the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRDMP).

However, the Master Plan was never seen through despite several allocations of funds for its implementation which is alleged to the tune of a whooping sum of N12 billion. At several sittings, the House of Representatives has summoned the past officials of the NDDC to its investigative panel over the whooping sum that was recovered from accounts traced to said officials.

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Countless companies have been awarded contracts by the NDDC that were never carried out, and the funds for the contracts were eventually diverted for private use.

Over the years, petitions against the leadership of the NDDC have often included allegations of racketeering whereby companies get paid for contracts only for the funds to be siphoned by directors of the Commission. The Master Plan, for instance, has been an excuse to approve the disbursement of funds.

Former Managing Director of NDDC, Engr. Omene, was alleged to have awarded German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) a contract of $8 million U.S. dollars in 2001 for the implementation of the Master Plan. It was alleged that Engr. Omene got a kick-back of over $3million from that contract which was never carried out.

The Commission has received over N15trillion for projects, most of which are still being investigated for being poorly done or completely abandoned.

The NDDC has a reputation for failed and abandoned projects for which millions had been splurged out. The region has become a litany of signboards that display intended projects and even the name of contractors to see through the projects. Sadly, these project sites have long been taken over by weeds.

It has been alleged that the NDDC leadership is an environment where would-be politicians breed.

There is hardly a Managing Director of the NDDC who has not been petitioned against by several activist groups in the Niger Delta on the grounds of misappropriation of funds meant for the region. Following the disappearance of over $16million, there have been calls for Dr. Nsima Ekere, who was the MD of the Commission from 2016 to 2019, to get probed.

It is widely speculated that the missing funds during his tenure were what he invested in his political ambitions to become the Governor of Akwa Ibom in the 2019 general elections. However, he lost the gubernatorial race.

The Interim Management Committee (IMC) and even more scandals

The reports that keep coming in about the NDDC has been increasingly unsavory. It is one of the reasons why there have been incessant changes in the NDDC leadership over the years and especially during the President Buhari-led administration. However, the changes still have not curbed the persistence of corruption in the Commission.

Perhaps, that was why President Buhari honored the proposal of Godswill Akpabio, Minister of Niger Delta, and announced the creation of an Interim Management Committee of the NDDC. However, the IMC has proven to be a pit of even more shameful scandals.

Furthermore, the creation of the NDDC was decried by several well-meaning groups of the Niger Delta region and beyond given that the Committee is an illegal one as there was no provision for such a committee in the NDDC Act of 2000.

One of the major arguments of these such groups was that the IMC was a single-handed proposal by Godswill Akpabio and would prove to be a scheme to enhance a more hitch-free diversion of public funds. The IMC provided a perfect cover-up for several dubious transactions in the NDDC.

And these opposing groups seemed to be right about the IMC as the Senate panel of inquiry revealed in April 2020 that the committee has spent over N81.5billion on projects that were either poorly done or abandoned, including money meant for Covid 19 palliative.

Godswill Akpabio was accused of sexual harassment by NDDC boss

When the IMC was created, Barrister Joy Nunieh was the Managing Director of the NDDC and automatically led the Committee. However, within a few months of the establishment of the IMC, Barr. Joy Nunieh was dismissed for alleged insubordination which included hurling grave allegations against Godswill Akpabio. The duo had a number of face-offs in the media.

In the heat of the conflict, Akpabio had said concerning the Barrister, “I wish she would go to a hospital, see a doctor and then get some injections and relax. I am not saying something is wrong with her. I am saying something is wrong with her temperament. You don’t need to ask me. You can ask about four other husbands she married.”

And in response, Nunieh said, “Why did he (Godswill Akpabio) not tell Nigerians that I slapped him in his guest house at Apo? I am the only woman that slapped Akpabio. He thought he could come up on me. He tried to harass me sexually. I slapped him.”

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Following the dismissal of Barrister Joy Nunieh, Prof. D.K Pondei was appointed, and Nigerians still say that move by the Federal Government was like moving from the frying pan into the fire.

President Buhari sacked Barr. Nunieh on the 19th of February, 2020 and immediately appointed Prof. Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei as Acting MD of the NDDC and equally expanded the IMC from 3-5 persons. Some say that the NDD was fully submerged into a cesspool of filth when Pondei took over as the audacity with which public funds were diverted into private pockets grew with an increasing shamelessness.

On December 12th, 2020, the Pondei-led administration of the NDDC IMC was relieved of its duties as there were allegations of graft and misappropriation of funds.

Following these gross allegations, the Senate set up a panel to probe the former Acting MD of the NDDC over part of the N81.5billion the Commission spent from January – May 2020. Pondei has become infamous for fainting right before the panel interrogating him for the missing funds. The interrogation was suspended in order to resuscitate him.

In conclusion, the saddest part of this narrative would probably be the fact that the fortunes meant for the Niger Delta region getting frittered away continuously. Since the NDDC was founded by President Obasanjo in 2000 up until now, the region has not seen any monumental development. In fact, the Guardian reports that most of what the region boasts of are an inheritance of military rule. So, at this point can we say that the NDDC is a failure?

Johnson Onyekachi wrote this

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