‘Make NDDC an Agency of Niger Delta Ministry’ (So the stealing can continue)

Posted by admin Headlines, Niger Delta Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

By Ndubuisi Francis
For the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to effectively coordinate development activities in the Niger Delta region, all stakeholders, including oil companies, private sector, and local communities must buy into the region’s evolving action plan.

The activities of all federal institutions operating in the region should also be streamlined with those of the ministry in such a way that an intervention agency like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) becomes a parastatal of the ministry rather than remain under the presidency.

These were part of the recommendations contained in a paper-“The Niger Delta: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, delivered by Prof. Mike Idi Obadan of the Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Benin and his counterpart from the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, in the same university, Prof. B.A. Chokor, at the ongoing stakeholders conference and first meeting of the National Council, on Niger Delta in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

According to them, making the NDDC an agency of the ministry would ensure that the development activities of the intervention body and those of the ministry are complementary rather than competitive.

“The development issues in the Niger Delta region have remained complex and challenging because past development planning efforts and policies failed to address the region’s needs; the political will and sincerity to do the right things in the Niger Delta region were conspicuously lacking. But then, with the government’s recent pronouncements and actions coupled with the emergence of the Niger Delta Action Plan, there is a basis for hope in a Niger Delta region that is peaceful, secure, prosperous and developed in physical and human terms.

“But this requires the concerted efforts of all stakeholders in the context of the collaborative framework being promoted by the government. And very importantly, for the ministry to be effective in its role of coordinating development activities in the Niger Delta, it is crucial for all stakeholders—state governments, local governments, other government agencies, development partners, oil companies, private sector, local communities, among others to buy into the action plan,” he recommended.

The paper noted that the region had witnessed a plethora of failed initiatives at development from colonial times, which ought to be reviewed in order to place in context any new formulations like the Niger Delta Action Plan, aimed at tackling the critical issue of human development.

He listed such initiatives as the Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) established in 1959; Niger Delta Basin Development Authority, which sprang up from NDDB in 1976, Oil and Gas-Community Development Programmes, Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) and Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES).

Others are World Bank: Defining an Environmental Strategy for Niger Delta; NDDC, Council for Socio-Economic Development of Coastal States of the Niger Delta as well as the UNDP Niger Delta Human Development Report.

The paper identified the pitfalls in previous development initiatives as top-down approach to planning, absence of a development plan framework for interventions, lack of an integrated approach, limited funding of programmes/projects as well as inadequate appreciation of the special problems of the core Niger Delta, and inadequate attention to human development.

-ThisDay

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