By Precious Mbah
The spending spree by the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), without any meaningful and sustainable impact on the lives of the people, has once again come under serious scrutiny. The actions of the current management are particularly alarming, raising fundamental concerns about accountability and the very purpose of the Commission.
Three issues stand out as clear examples of this recklessness. First, the lavish celebration of the Commission’s 25th anniversary, despite the absence of achievements to justify such fanfare. Second, the extravagant celebration of the Managing Director’s 50th birthday, staged across Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos, Yenagoa, and even his hometown of Ayakoro, with luxury hotels hired at enormous cost. Third, the lavish hosting of past management teams, accompanied by expensive gift packages and capped with plans for a “grand finale” in London.
Altogether, these activities consumed a staggering ₦56 billion, resources that should have been directed to meaningful and impactful projects in the Niger Delta. Such wasteful jamborees are a direct affront to the hopes and aspirations of the people the NDDC was created to serve.
Instead of delivering infrastructure, healthcare, education, and empowerment initiatives, the Commission has chosen to indulge in frivolous spending that brings no value to the region. This pattern of mismanagement is unacceptable and must be confronted urgently.
This concern which was raised by an advocacy group. The Niger Delta Integrity League who described this squander-manic attributes of the management of the commission as ego-trip with an agenda that is very detrimental to the people of the Niger Delta.
The group therefore called on the President Tinubu led Federal Government, the component State Governors of the Niger Delta Development Commission, civil society organizations, and all stakeholders to take immediate steps to hold the Commission accountable and redirect it to its true mandate. The Niger Delta has endured enough neglect and mismanagement — it is time for the NDDC to deliver real development and restore the confidence of the people.
A group, the Niger Delta Integrity League, NDIL, has decried the recent celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, as a huge waste of public funds.
NDLI further accused the management of the agency of turning it into a cesspool of profligacy where public funds are wasted needlessly.
The breakdown of this squander-mania according to the leader of the group, Mr. Fred include the following:
The NDIL said, “We have it on good and reliable authorities that the Ogbuku-led management expended a provocative sum of N45 billion just to celebrate 25th anniversary of the creation of the Commission. This is mind boggling and colossal waste of public fund at the expense of the development of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta.”
The group also accused management of wasting another whooping sum of N11 billion to host past management of the NDDC as part of celebrating 25 years of the creation of the NDDC, an event which was extravagantly held in Lagos making it a total of N56 billion that went down the drain.
The group opined that the Niger Delta has not had it so bad like the current management of the agency, where the commission has been turned to what it described as “a criminal enterprise with no tangible life changing project to show in spite of the trillions the commission has received under the current leadership of Ogbuku.”
The group therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently look into the brazen malfeasance of the Ogbuku-led management in order to avert further collateral damage to the image of his administration and the Niger Delta at large. To ignore or look the other way in the face of these grievous allegations can only be construed as scandalous collusion.
“We cannot afford to fold our arms and allow those saddled with the responsibility to drive the development process in the region to rather hoodwink us at the detriment of the age-long struggle for a better condition for oil-producing communities. We are tired of being deceived by the current management “. Ogenevor Fred the leader stated.
. Precious Mbah, a Benin-based commentator on public affairs, wrote the piece.
