NDDC Board Vs. Interim Management Committee – What You May Never Have Been Told

“There is nothing like Interim Management Committee in the NDDC Establishment Act 2000. As far as we are concerned, the Senate knows that we have confirmed the request of Mr. President on the board membership of the NDDC. I believe that the Executive arm of government will attend to that quickly so that we have the right people to defend the appropriation request of Mr. President. Let me state that the Committee should only deal with board members confirmed by the Senate.” – Senate President

“The (NDDC) board does not defend the budget. It is the management that defends the budget…Our committee will go ahead with the budget defence with the Interim Management Committee as from next week. The budget has been referred to our Committee and the management would defend it. Unless the board is inaugurated, we would not allow them to come and defend the budget.” – House of Reps.

It can no longer be pretended that there is nothing President Buhari and his pliant acolytes do not want ordinary Nigerians, especially Niger Deltans, to know about Sen. Akpabio’s Interim Management Committee and the NDDC new board that had been screened and confirmed by the Senate approximately a month by today. One question very common on tongues therefore is “What really is happening?” And Nigerians have had to ask this one question in practically every step of the way.

That may be a roundabout way of saying that the persistent orchestration of power among political midwives of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the last two months or so is fast becoming shambolic and unfortunate in the light of each passing day. Because even the most comical episodes have been staged in open theatres, there is growing fear about what may have been happening behind the iron curtains, and what is yet to happen, in Aso Rock that is adding to the generational woes that have befallen the NDDC from inception.

Apart from the fact that the power tussle over who controls the NDDC at it stands is coming too early and messier and messier by the day, this is certainly not the best of starts for a chequered Commission that leadership of the country brandishes its readiness to show greater interest in its quick recovery and redemption from inherited deficiencies from the last 19 years of wasteful and unproductive existence. The good bad thing however is that, at this point, all the actors have been defaced.

Recall that on Tuesday, August 27, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SFG), Olusegun Adekunle, had announced receipt from the Presidency names of nominees of 16-member new board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The statement added that the then interim management headed by Nelson Brambaifa had been directed to handover to the most senior director in the commission. Subject to Senate’s confirmation, the release summarily directed the board designates to visit the SGF’s office on September 2, 2019 for proper documentation and briefing.

Hence, Same details were subsequently forwarded to the Senate in a letter dated October 18, 2019. Part of the letter reads: “In accordance with the provision of Section 2 (2)(a) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Establishment Act 2000, I write to forward for confirmation by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the under-listed nominees for appointment into the NDDC board. They are to occupy the positions indicated against their names”.

The list consists of the former deputy governor to former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomole, Dr. Pius Odubu as Chairman; Bernard Okumagba (Delta State), Managing Director; Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom State), Executive Director Projects; and Maxwell Okoh (Bayelsa), Finance and Administration.

Others on the list are Jones Erue (Delta); Victor Ekhatar (Edo); and Joy Nunieh (Rivers State); Nwogu Nwogu (Abia); Theodore Allison (Bayelsa); Victor Antai (Akwa Ibom); and Maurice Effiwatt (Cross River). Included also are Olugbenga Edema (Ondo); Uchegbu Kirian (Imo); Aisha Murtala Muhammed (Kano), representing the North-West area; Ardo Zubairo (Adamawa), representing North-East zone; and Ambassador Abdullahi Bage (Nasarawa), for North-Central geo-political zone.

SENATE’S STANDOFF:

On Tuesday, 29 October, 2019, President of the Senate, Hon. Lawan Ahmed, read the letter to Members during plenary and mandated the House Committee on Niger Delta Ministry, to handle the matter and report back to the Senate within one week. According to Senator Peter Nwabaoshi (Delta), Head, House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, on the first day of screening, 14 of the 16 nominees appeared before the Committee, and all the 14 were asked, in what has become adoptive tradition of the 9th Senate, to take a bow and go for one reason or the other. However, Joy Yimebe Nunieh (Rivers) and Aisha Mutala Muhammed, who were absent onz the first day screening were asked to return the following Monday.

But on that Monday, according to Nwaboashi, Joy Nunieh refused to show up and for that, she was stepped down by the Committee, an action that the Senate unanimously vetoed. Therefore as the Senate met at plenary on Tuesday, 5th November, 2019 to consider the report, the House Committee on page 18 of its 19-page report emphasized that Nunieh was twice absent and therefore was not screened. Hence, “her nomination therefore was not recommended for confirmation”, the report stressed, and the Committee of the whole house adopted it.

It can also be remembered that on the same Tuesday, October 29, 2019 that the Senate considered President Buhari’s request during plenary, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, in a parallel action also inaugurated a 3-man Interim Management Committee for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The Committee comprised Acting Managing Director, Dr, Joy Nunieh (Rivers), Acting Executive Director, Projects, Dr, Cairo Ojougbor (Delta); and Acting Executive Director, Finance/ Administration, Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang. Consequent upon the changes, the then Acting Managing Director, Dr. Akwagaga Enyia, had on October 30, 2019 handed over to Dr. Nunieh.

That notwithstanding, with the confirmation of the House Committee’s report, the Senate, through its President Ahmed Lawan, had declared Akpabio’s Interim Committee as an “illegality”, “a contraption” and “sabotage”, and urged members to recognise and deal only with the statutory board of the NDDC as confirmed.

But on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, President Buhari again forwarded a letter to the Senate requesting appraisal and passage of the 2019/2020 NDDC Budget. The letter which was read by Senator Lawan on the floor of the Chambers that same Tuesday pleaded: “Pursuant to Section 18(1) of the Niger Delta Development Commission Establishment Act, I forward herewith 2019/2020 budget estimates of the Niger Delta Development Commission for the kind consideration and passage by the Senate. While hoping that Senate will consider this request in the usual expeditious manner, please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration”.

But that request was punctured by memory of impending matters. Immediately after the letter was read, Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, drawing enormous strength from Order 43 of the Senate Standing Rules drew attention of his colleagues to the fact that members of the new NDDC board, screened and approved about a month earlier by the Senate, the statutory and legal body to defend the budget, were yet to be inaugurated or sworn-in by the President. To the parliamentarians, the Interim Management Committee of the Minister of Delta Delta Affairs was in their word, “a contraption” that is not recognized by law.

It was obvious from further deliberations on the matter that more problems were in the offing. The Senate President, accordingly, had responded, “As far as we are concerned, the Senate knows that we have confirmed the request of Mr. President on the board membership of the NDDC, and we have communicated that. The next logical thing to do by law is for the appointment of members of the board to take immediate effect. I believe that the Executive arm of government will attend to that quickly so that we have the right people to defend the appropriation request of Mr. President”.

Then came an imperative clause from Sen. Ahmed to the House Committee of Niger Delta Affairs who were mandated to look into the appropriation and report back to the Senate within one week: “This budget is hereby referred to the Committee on Niger Delta Affairs. You are to report back in two weeks. Let me state that the Committee should only deal with board members confirmed by the Senate”.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES’ DEFIANCE AND DISTINCT POSITION

Like the upper chamber, the House of Representative has had no rest over recent boiling issues in the NDDC. First, the House during planetary the penultimate week had vowed to stand down consideration of the 2020 budget of the NDDC because of the controversial appointment of an Interim Management Committee by Sen. Godswill Akpabio, against extant laws regulating the existence of the struggling commission.

The resolution had followed a matter of public urgent importance motioned by Ossai Ossai on the urgent need to stop what the lower House called, “illegality in the Niger Delta Commission”,. He had argued that the haste with which Sen. Akpabio constituted the committee was enough for suspicion of intent. Second, on November 13, 2019, a motion on the NDDC budget was raised in the House accusing the NDDC of using the 2018 budget in 2019. Consequently, House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission was mandated to investigate the matter.

On top of that, November 26, President Buhari sent a letter to the House requesting the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, to consider the 2019/2020 NDDC budget. The letter had stated: “Pursuant to Section 18(1) of the Niger Delta Development Commission Establishment Act, I forward herewith 2019/2020 budget estimates of the Niger Delta Development Commission for the kind consideration and passage by the House. While hoping that Senate will consider this request in the usual expeditious manner, please accept, Mr. Speaker, the assurances of my highest consideration”.

However, in what many have described as a sudden theatrical oscillation, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on NDDC, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji, disclosed that the Green Chambers shall have nothing to do with the NDDC board as confirmed, but rather shall choose to deal with the Interim Management Committee. Hence, paving the way to welcome the Dr. Joy Nunieh protem committee to the House to defend the 2020 budget, which previously was to be shunned.

This is their argument: “The board does not defend the budget, it is the management that defends the budget. As far as there is no other directive from the leadership of the House of Representatives, our committee will go ahead with the budget defence with the Interim Management Committee as from next week. The budget has been referred to our Committee and the management would defend it. Unless the board is inaugurated, we would not allow them to come and defend the budget”, Mr. Tunji had disclosed.

Tunji apparently drew strength from the Constitution in arguing that the Interim Management Committee must not be discarded as “illegal” as the Senate would want to have Nigerians believe: “Section (1) of the Constitution which is the grand norm states that the President has the power to appoint persons to hold or act in the offices to which this section applies. Subsections 2 (b) talks about the offices of which the section applies. This includes the Permanent Secretary in any office or head of any extra ministerial department, of which the NDDC is one…This has automatically killed the argument that the Interim Management team is illegal because the President is right; he has the power to appoint people in acting capacity. We are going ahead to take the interim management of the NDDC under the leadership of the acting MD”.

On the other hand, Senate spokesperson, Godiya Akwashiki, contended: “We have confirmed the nominees sent to us by the Presidency. Assuming we didn’t confirm them, then we could be talking of a caretaker committee. We expect the President to inaugurate the new board. It doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to do that. We will deal with the board approved by the Senate in line with the Constitution. We won’t recognise any caretaker committee…There is no room for caretaker committee in the NDDC. We won’t ask for the dissolution of the team but the Senate could call for their arrest if they want to forcefully defend the NDDC budgets. Let’s wait and see how far they (the caretaker committee) can go or how far they can move”.

PRESIDENT BUHARI ‘STAY OF ACTION ORDER’

The matter became a national cake for many fork strokes. Not a few unaffected legal pundits have argued that the Senate is wrong in insisting on dealing only with the confirmed NDDC board when it has not been inaugurated. This, one of them stressed, is because on sighting some errors in the composition of the board, the President had allegedly issued a stay of action order. Findings have shown that there are over a 100 litigations against the new NDDC board as was sent to the Senate by the President. Section 4 of the NDDC Act states categorically the order of appointment of the Chairman of the NDDC.

For instance, Section 12 (4) of the NDDC Act handles issues pertaining to the position of the Managing Director and recommends that it should be rotated among the oil producing states in order of quantum of production. If that were to hold sway, it would mean that the current position of managing director given to Mr. Bernard Okumagba (Delta State should have been given to somebody from Ondo State, to which the rotation principle favours by law. Mr. Olugbenga Edema from Ondo is just a member on the new board of the NDDC, while Omotayo Alasoudura replaced Festus Keyamo as Minister for State, Niger Delta Affairs.

In the wake of boisterous remonstrations, President Buhari’s alleged “stand down order” surfaced. A source had confided in Crystal Express that the stay of action order by the President may purportedly have reached the Senate before they embarked on the confirmation of the board members, which by law delivered the confirmation null and void. The source further revealed that there was a joint Senate and House of Representatives’ investigative hearing where the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, presented a letter dated October 26, 2019, wherein paragraph eight of it contained President Buhari’s request for stay of action on the confirmation of the new NDDC board.

The letter is said to have been prompted by the observed lacuna and corresponding wild complaints in the composition of the NDDC board, requesting that all actions should be withheld while an interim board was set up, pending when the Presidency shall have concluded consultations with the Niger Delta Advisory Council before possibly emerging with a new board structure.

THE MELTING POT

“But why didn’t the President do the needful before sending the list to the National Assembly?” Some Nigerians have asked. Some analysts see the problem arising from there. It is contended that there was nothing that would have made President Buhari to act in any hurry in the manner of sending a list of nominees to the Senate when he was not very sure of the guiding laws or properly briefed by his aides. For instance, why did the President not consult beforehand those he ought to have contacted, like the Niger Delta Advisory Council?

Meaning by implication, like some are already thinking, the Senate must have smelt a rat either in the whole process or specifically in the composition of the Interim Management Committee, especially in connection with the ongoing forensic audit of the Commission where big wigs are allegedly involved in contract scams and other malfeasance, prima facie. Some, still, are of the opinion that, the Interim Management Committee may have been designed as a bludgeon against those whom the Niger Delta was truly an ATM, but who may have run out of favour of realities and the powers that be. .

While there is this much noise in town over the matter, it particularly worries many why President Buhari appears to be silent and taciturn. Some say that it is because the boss is not unaware of the subsisting intrigues. Perhaps the President also know that the dust will settle when he wants it settled because he perhaps can have some vocal principals in his palms, although there may be grandstand spectacles and rhetoric to the contrary.

THE AKPABIO LOGIC

With his appointment on August 21, 2019, against all odds, Sen. Akpabio mounted the saddle without pretensions or fears. To some it would seem that all the steps the former Senate Minority Leader has taken so far have been controversial. But justifying the essence of the Interim Management Committee, Akpabio who disclosed that the Committee will be in office until the conclusion of the forensic audit of the NDDC from 2001 to 2019, said it was to create “enabling environment” for the forensic audit exercise announced by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Corroborating Akpabio’s position by way of insights into the Committee, Dr. Ojougboh had stated: “And so the issues at hand were, one, which management will oversee the forensic audit? It was thought that bureaucracy is part of the problem in the NDDC…So, the system came up with the idea that an independent body must be put together to oversee the forensic audit for a period of three to six months”. Interestingly, the Interim Committee has made great daring and damning discoveries about the nature of corruption in the NDDC.

Maybe we have to agree with Akpabio, “We have had a lot of political interference; people have not allowed NDDC to work as it ought to; people coming with ideas not to move the region forward but to move their pockets forward. It has always been so”.