Politics of NDDC probe

Daily Independent

11 August 2011

Politics of NDDC probe

By Daniel Abia, Snr. Correspondent, Port Harcourt

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government as an interventionist agency to appropriately tackle the problems of under-development in the Niger Delta region. The Commission came into being via the NDDC Act of 2000 with a mandate to implement all measures approved for the development of the Niger Delta. It was also saddled with the responsibility of tackling ecological and environmental problems arising from oil exploration, among others.

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 coordinator of Egbema Movement for Justice, a community group in Edo State, Robinson Uroupa, alleged that most oil-bearing communities were yet to benefit from NDDC.

‘’As a group, we are of the view that NDDC has lost focus and it has become a beehive of corrupt activities. There is no form of organized protest that will save the management from indictment’’, he stated. For Mr. Solomon Okpo of Eket Collective, a Think-tank group in the Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom State, ‘’we are of the view that the present NDDC should be scrapped, and their mandate handed over to core professionals like those of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)’’.

According to the Eket group, ‘’NDDC is not delivering on its mandate. The largely sponsored protests are coming too late because the authorities have and know the facts about the mess in that place. Unless government removes politicians from the place, it will continue to be a conduit pipe to line individual pockets’’.