The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is a
federal government agency
A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...
established by former
Nigerian
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...
president
Olusegun Obasanjo
Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...
in the year 2000, with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...
region of
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
. In September 2008, President
Umaru Yar'Adua
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (; 16 August 19515 May 2010) was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 Ma ...
announced the formation of a
Niger Delta Ministry
The Ministry of Niger Delta Development formerly Ministry Of Niger Delta Affairs is one of the Federal Ministries of Nigeria. It focuses on the infrastructural development, environmental protection and empowerment of youths in the oil rich Niger D ...
, with the Niger Delta Development Commission to become a
parastatal
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...
under the ministry. One of the core mandates of the commission is to train and educate the youths of the oil rich Niger Delta regions to curb hostilities and
militancy
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...
, while developing key infrastructure to promote economic diversification and productivity.
Background
The NDDC was created largely as a response to the demands of the population of the Niger Delta, a populous area inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups. During the 1990s, these ethnic groups, most notably the
Ijaw Ijaw may refer to:
*Ijaw people
The Ijaw people, also known as the Izon people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, with primary Population, population clusters in Bayelsa State, Bayelsa, Delta State, Delta, and River ...
and the
Ogoni established organisations to confront the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies such as
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
. The minorities of the Niger Delta have continued to agitate and articulate demands for greater autonomy and control of the area's petroleum resources. They justify their grievances by reference to the extensive
environmental degradation
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
and pollution from oil activities that have occurred in the region since the late 1950s. However, the minority communities of oil producing areas have received little or no currency from the oil industry and
environmental remediation
Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...
measures are limited and negligible. The region is highly underdeveloped and is poor even by Nigeria's standards for quality of life.
Sometimes violent confrontation with the state and oil companies, as well as with other communities has constrained oil production as disaffected youth or organisations deliberately disrupt oil operations in attempts to effect change. These disruptions have been extremely costly to the Nigerian oil industry, and both the multinationals and the federal government have vested interests in permitting uninterrupted extraction operations; the NDDC is a result of these concerns and is an attempt to satisfy the demands of the delta's population.
Mandate and operations
The NDDC mandate:
*Formulation of policies and guidelines for the development of the Niger Delta area.
*Conception, planning and implementation, in accordance with set rules and regulations, of projects and programs for sustainable development of the Niger Delta area in the field of transportation including roads, jetties and waterways, health, employment, industrialization, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications.
*Surveying the Niger Delta in order to ascertain measures necessary to promote its physical and socio-economic development.
*Preparing master plans and schemes designed to promote the physical development of the Niger Delta region and the estimation of the member states of the commission.
*Implementation of all the measures approved for the development of the Niger Delta region by the Federal Government and the states of the commission.
*Identify factors inhibiting the development of the Niger Delta region and assisting the member states in the formulation and implementation of policies to ensure sound and efficient management of the resources of the Niger Delta region.
*Assessing and reporting on any project being funded or carried out in the region by oil and gas companies and any other company, including non-governmental organizations, as well as ensuring that funds released for such projects are properly utilized.
*Tackling ecological and environmental problems that arise from the exploration of oil mineral in the Niger Delta region and advising the Federal Government and the member states on the prevention and control of oil spillages, gas flaring and environmental pollution.
*Liaising with the various oil mineral and gas prospecting and producing companies on all matters of pollution, prevention and control.
*Executing such other works and performing such other functions, which in the option of the commission are required for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region and its people
Abandoned or incomplete projects & programmes
By 2021, more than 13,000 projects and programmes by NDDC have either been abandoned or are uncompleted. The agency is said to have received ₦6tr between 1999 and 2021. 953 of the abandoned projects are sited in Rivers State. President
Mohammed Buhari had ordered a forensic audit NDDC from 2001 to 2019. This led to termination of contracts of which there had been no activities on the contract site.
Fiber Optics/Telecoms and Oil Spill
In 2015, the NDDC started a three months twin certification programme in December 2015, running into billions of naira that was abandoned two months into the training - The Fiber Optics/Telecoms (
Owerri
Owerri ( , ) is the capital city of Imo State in Nigeria, set in the heart of Igboland. It is also the state's largest city, followed by Orlu, Nigeria, Orlu, Okigwe and Ohaji/Egbema. Owerri consists of three Local Government Areas of Nigeria, Loc ...
) and
Oil Spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...
Management (
Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...
) Training for youths of the Niger Delta region. The two programmes were abandoned by the NDDC and its contractors Mr. Alex Duke (CEO of
GreenData Limited). GreenData abandoned the 200 trainees in various hotels in Owerri. This is 2019, and the programmes are still not completed. The Presidency, the NDDC nor its contractor Mr. Alex Duke have said when the training will resume. This and other issues have led the current board of the commission to cancel some contracts. This is not the first time contracts worth billions of naira have been abandoned and monies going into private pockets, which has brought the NDDC into the watchful eyes of the Presidency. One of the core mandates of the commission is to train and educate the youths of the oil rich Niger Delta regions to curb hostilities and also to reduce poverty.
Deferred by pandemic
In the year 2020 the NDDC Executive Management mandated G2TEL Consortium (George Oruma) a freelance Environmentalist/Engineering personnel to assist the organization in the area of developing and procurement of Garbage/Waste Trucks for the use and sanitizing the states of Niger Delta Development Commission. Due to pandemic disaster and situations affecting operations all over the world, the projects has been postponed to 2021. The sum of $65M has been budgeted for the entire project, including maintenance.
Executive Chairman
The position of Executive Chairman of the NDDC has been a subject of much debate. A compromise was reached where the position would be rotated within the nine oil producing states in alphabetical order:
Abia,
Akwa Ibom
Akwa Ibom is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It borders Cross River State to the east, Rivers State and Abia State to the west and north-west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The state takes its name from the Qua ...
,
Bayelsa,
Cross River,
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
,
Edo
Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
,
Imo,
Ondo and
Rivers
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
.
Sole administrators
*
Effiong Akwa, 2020-2022
However, On December 12, 2020, President Buhari named as sole administrator,
Effiong Akwa, a lawyer and accountant, former Special Assistant, Finance at the NDDC, and former Acting Executive Director, Finance.
On the 20th of October 2022, The President appointed a new Acting Managing Director, Engr Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, for th
Niger Delta Development Commission
References
External links
Senator Ararume Lauds NDDCBoost for Nigeria DeltaTinubu Appoints Chiedu Ebie as NDDC Chairman*
We will do things right, NDDC Acting MD Assures Engr. Emmanuel Audu-OhwavboruaWe Will Boost Youth[Empowerment, Says NDDC Boss]
NDDC Restores Flood Ravaged East West Road
{{Federal Ministries of Nigeria
Economy of Nigeria
2000 establishments in Nigeria
Politics of Nigeria
Fossil fuels in Nigeria
Government of Nigeria
Niger River Delta