The dance of the absurd taking place
in the media space in recent times couldn't have been had President Buhari not
ordered for a Forensic Audit of the Books of the Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC.
The National Assembly under Senator
Ahmed Lawan and Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila seems to be unconcerned about the
imminent dangers of a resurgence of youth restiveness in the oil and gas rich
area of the country as some Lawmakers with obvious insidious interest have
continued to challenge the authority of the President on the all-inclusive
probe of the Commission which has been wobbling, twenty years after its
creation. The excessive freedom enjoyed by those who have been publicly accused
by the supervising Committee of the NDDC has been overstretched as the
leadership of the 9th Assembly has either chosen to look the other way or
become complicit in the macabre dance.
Since the decision by the President
to look into the way billions of Naira have been frittered away through the
Commission, the discordant tunes from a few, powerful Lawmakers from the Niger
Delta region has become worrisome that the reading public is now suspicious of
their involvement in the pathological sleaze that has characterized the Commission
while leaving the region underdeveloped and gasping for air, in a manner akin
to the African-American, George Floyd who died while begging to breathe.
It is worrisome that in spite of the
fact that the National Assembly is led by the ruling party, APC, yet, the
synergy expected between the Executive and the Legislature is far from being in
existence as it concerns the Niger Delta region, which has consistently
sustained the economy since 1956, when oil was discovered in commercial
quantities.
Is it not beyond surprising and an
effrontrey for a group of Lawmakers to challenge the decision of the President
in approving an intervention for the people of the region for the purpose of
the pandemic? The impudence displayed by these Lawmakers who definitely have
something sinister to frustrate the efforts of the Interim Management
Committee, IMC, of the Commission and the supervising Minister, Senator
Godswill Akpabio is a pointer that all is not well, particularly, when the
supposed leader of the recalcitrant Lawmakers is from the opposition party,
PDP. Could it be that the Senate President has conceded his powers to his
Deputy, who recently, walked into the Headquarters of the EFCC with a letter
written by the Clerk of the Senate, albeit on his instruction and requested for
the probe and arrest of Buhari's Minister, even when other Senators were kept
in the dark of such an offensive? With the denial of Omo-Agege of his
involvement in the scandal, will the Senate President set up a Committee to
investigate him alongside the Clerk or simply sack the latter? That is up to
him to stand for the truth or let his exalted office be ridiculed by his Deputy
and his quest for power!
The desperation to have Akpabio
removed and the Pondei-led IMC sacked is purely an effort to ensure that Buhari
leaves no legacies in the Niger Delta region. The cry over the mismanagement of
funds at the NDDC has been on, over time and was enunciated by Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo, sometime in 2019 at Delta State. There was a follow up visit to
the President by the Governors of the States under the NDDC which compelled the
President to give Akpabio the mandate to appoint Forensic Auditors to look into
the books, with an Interim Management Committee to oversee the running of the
Commission while the audit lasts.
Sadly, those who seem to have been
squandering the funds meant to build high grade Schools, Hospitals, Roads and
Bridges amongst other infrastructures, are desperate to have Akpabio's head on
the slaughter slab, as millions of Naira have been deployed to different youth
groups and a section of the media to further plant negative stories in other to
discredit those saddled with this responsibility.
More worrisome is the involvement of
high profile and principal officers at the National Assembly in this
distracting dance, that one begins to wonder if truly they mean well for the
region. What really do they intend to achieve in ensuring that Buhari does not
add a stone to projects in the Niger Delta. Is there a fifth columnist working against
the President but are pretending to be partners in progress with him?
The effort made by the NDDC to
source for international grant of $126 million from the International Fund for
Agricultural Development, IFAD, has been aborted at the point of delivery
by this same Lawmakers who wickedly slashed the budgetary provision for the
counterpart funding from N1.3 billion to a paltry N100 million in the 2019
Budget of the NDDC! Funds from IFAD meant to massively engage in Agriculture in
the region was wished away with the stroke of the pen. Not done with the plot
to keep the region perpetually underdeveloped and totally dependent on crumbs
from. Federal Allocation, these agents of darkness ensured that the budget of
N10 billion for the construction of three Specialist Hospitals in the region
was slashed to another paltry N100m! Yet, they prefer that billions of Naira
are allocated for non-existent Training programs, Desilting of the Waterways
and Medical Tourism overseas that yield nothing.
The 2020 Budget which has since been
submitted in 2019 is yet to be attended to. Those who have gathered
irrespective of party affiliations, to keep the region in agony at the risk of
illegal activities of oil bunkering, environmental degradation and deprivation,
and massive pollution of the air and water resulting in the cancerous black
smooth and death of aquatic life are not done with their offensive as they
question the rationale behind the payment of contractors owed by successive
Boards of the Commission.
The recent probe of N40 billion by
the two Houses of the National Assembly is only a disguise of their real
intents. Why is this probe more important to the supposed watchdogs of the
Commission rather than allow for a thorough Forensic Audit? What is the real
purpose of the Adhoc Committees of the two Houses in writing the Bureau of
Public Procurement to deny the Forensic Auditors access to the nine states to
verify the records of the Commission? This is not only suspicious but
scandalous by those who claim to be in support of the Presidential Order of the
Forensic Audit!
One begins to wonder who is actually
ruling the country when a few Lawmakers have effortlessly challenged the powers
of the President to seek to know what has been of the monies poured into the
NDDC for over 19 years.
For the second highest ranking
Senator who flaunts the title of "Leader of the South South" to
resort to a petition against a Minister to the EFCC, in order to frustrate the
President and leader of his political party, leaves much to be desired! It is
clear that the 9th Assembly is not interested in the development of the Niger
Delta region.
No wonder the same Lawmakers who
claim to have an oversight function on the Niger Delta have failed to query the
Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund, PIDF, on the deliberate neglect
of the East-West Road which is one of the five critical projects under the
Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA. While they are at war with the
managers of NDDC, they have left the people of the region to suffer as they
navigate from one state to the other through the East-West Road. In spite of a
Presidential approval of N100bn in 2018 for the completion of sections 1 to 4
of the road and a release of N19.5bn by the Minister for Finance, three years ago,
for the payment of legacy debts, the PIDF under Mr Uche Orji has failed to pay
the Contractors, thereby delaying their return to the site and allowing the
road to deteriorate.
Without a recent intervention by the
NDDC to repair the failed sections of the road, the people of the region would have
completely been cut off from the West.
It is clear that there is an
orchestrated plot to make sure that the APC controlled Federal Government fails
in the Niger Delta region. And who are those responsible for this mess?
Obviously, they are not far from us as the fate of the Niger Delta region now
depends on them!
By Obiaruko Ndukwe
President, Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative
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