By Nsikak Ekanem
In Nigeria today, no other issue makes news than issues pertaining to the oil and gas industry. That is because the blood veins of the Nigerian economy, which dovetails to our political and social lives, among others, runs on the streams of crude oil and gas tapped from the Niger Delta axis of Nigeria.
As Federal Government interventionist agency for the development of the region, NDDC came to existence because while it has been so far so good for multinational oil companies operating in the area and the national and sub-national treasuries, it has been so far so bad for the oil producing communities, who live in squalor amidst splendor. Unfortunately, the headlines about the agency have been more on corruption than development. The metaphor of ATM used by Akpabio was only making the common news meaty – a kind of news-behind-the-news, packaged with usual but refreshing contents.
Though Akpabio might not be considered by many worthy of standing on a podium to deliver a lecture against corruption, the sterling record of infrastructural renaissance in Akwa Ibom under his watch, which is yet to be rivaled, often contributes quite significantly in letting people to draw attention to him, particularly on matters concerning infrastructural development.
As it is applicable in the Nigerian public sector, it is very easy to say that corruption runs in the fabric of NDDC but it is difficult to pinpoint persons pocketing what belongs to the agency. Since Nigeria is a country that exercises faith in the rule of law, it is only when a competent court of law pronounces one guilty that one can say with unwavering authority that the person’s hand so pronounced is filled with filth of financial frauds. However glaringly the perceived dirty deals in the NDDC appear, it is only within the realm of assumption until it is procedurally brought to the fore with the stamp of the law.
Corruption, as former President Goodluck Jonathan once explained and got derided by the cynical public, goes beyond stealing. One of the meanings of corruption, as advanced in Merriam Webster dictionary is “something that has been changed from its original form, a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct.”
Though the NDDC is a statutory creation, since its creation in 2000 by the Olusegun Obasanjo government, successive administration at the federal level has been obeying the laws setting up commission in breaches. When it is not about non-setting up of the Governing Board of the commission as at when due, it could be about non-remittance of statutory contributions from the federal government, failure to follow the dictates of the law in appointment of board members of the commission, unlawful termination of appointment of management, non-inauguration of Advisory Board or all of the above, even at the same time.
Though the NDDC is a statutory creation, since its creation in 2000 by the Olusegun Obasanjo government, successive administration at the federal level has been obeying the laws setting up commission in breaches. When it is not about non-setting up of the Governing Board of the commission as at when due, it could be about non-remittance of statutory contributions from the federal government, failure to follow the dictates of the law in appointment of board members of the commission, unlawful termination of appointment of management, non-inauguration of Advisory Board or all of the above, even at the same time.
It is even curious in that board members appointed by the president have successfully passed through senatorial scrutiny since that last year, yet the president has decided to keep them indefinitely on reserve bench, pending when a forensic auditing of the finances of the commission he ordered is done. Worst still, with the mounting of Akpabio on the saddle of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs since last year, an alien nomenclature has crept into NDDC’s lexicon: supervising minister.
Unlike what is the norm and what was obtainable before, Akpabio is currently the face of NDDC. So many do not even know the picture and name of the current Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, just as many have got lost that, though related in certain ways, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC have their distinct role, and not fused functions, to play in the development of the Niger Delta region.
That is why Akpabio, in a matter that ordinarily would not have concerned him, is at the centre of storm over allegation of financial malfeasances leveled against the interim management committee of the NDDC. It is uncommon corruption. It is furthering already heaps of evidences that adherence to laid down rules is perpetually on sabbatical under the Buhari administration.
As an entity created by law, NDDC is statutorily structured with internal organs to check its excesses and ensure efficiency and effectiveness in accordance with its core mandate. For instance, the Advisory Board constituted largely with nine governors from the nine oil-producing states has the spine of the law that the NDDC’s “supervising minister” do not have. Also, apart from appropriating finances of the commission, the National Assembly has oversight function on it. It is, therefore, difficult to fathom the functionality of a “supervising minister” without linking it to officiousness and usurpation.
The matter is also messy in that the person who has the mandate of the president to drive the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs is even the one mercilessly relegating it to the background. It defeats the federal government’s essence of creating the commission and the ministry. It has also shortchange the Niger Delta in that it appears to be that only one federal establishment is now working for the development of the region instead of the two as programmed by the federal government.
The namby-pamby excuse that cleaning NDDC’s Augean stable cannot thrive under a substantive management body is a sophistry that can only survive in a silly season. Unfortunately, there is no docile day, let alone, a silly season in the volatile Niger Delta. When it comes to issues pertaining to what accrues from proceeds from oil and gas, virtually everybody in the creeks and tracts in the Niger Delta has passionate interest and the people are so sophisticated to be hoodwinked by the theatre of the absurd.
In his political career, Akpabio is widely known to be very good at three PCs – power cravings, political comedies and political controversies. Each time he is rioting on any of them, something stupid in me keeps distancing me from the multitude in the street by telling me that he is not flying in colours, but rather making a fly in the ointment, with the possibility that the action could turn out to be a shoot in the foot. With retinue of cheering crowd always hanging on him, it is difficult for the flamboyant politician to discern that anytime he is engaging in the three PCs, he is unwittingly offering himself for a fry in the frying pan of politics.
More often, Akpabio courts enemies from friendly and unfriendly quarters and the cut across all stations of his public life. In view of those, whose toes he has stepped on, and the ever-present banana peel at the NDDC, coupled with the misnomer of usurping the functions of the NDDC management, Akpabio would need to either invent a life of nine cats or some sort of deus ex machina to remain triumph in the ongoing trial of the NDDC.
Ekanem wrote from Lagos and can be reached through: nsikak4media@gmail.com