By Charles Okogene
Like the saying goes that before Jesus Christ, Moses was, so it was with Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC): before NDDC was OMPADEC was.
While OMPADEC was a creation of the military regime, NDDC, which rose from the ashes of OMPADEC like the proverbial Phoenix bird, NDDC is a creation of the present political dispensation; in fact, it is one of the legacies President Olusegun Obasanjo of the People’s Democratic Party left behind.
Established in 2000; specifically to champion the development of the Niger Delta area that lays the golden egg, in this case, the black gold, with, which the country is developed, NDDC has, instead of turning the area into a small ‘london’, became a cesspool of corruption, going by what happened in the days of the last immediate acting managing director
Even with the 13 percent derivation that some of the governors of the core Niger Delta region fought for and got from the PDP led federal government then for the area and coupled with the huge monthly federal allocation to them, that did not make any difference as the area, except for Akwa Ibom State that witnessed a monumental uncommon physical development under Akpabio, remained a squalor. The rural areas in particular where the crude oil is drilled remained underdeveloped; no good road, no electricity, no hospital, no water to drink, farm lands devasted by oil spillage from international oil companies like Shell, Chevron, Mobil operating there. Good example is the Ogoni pollution that has not been cleaned up despite President Buhari effort at getting that done.
This was the real situation in the area before the coming of the uncommon ex-governor, a son of the soil, who was once a senator, Godswill Akpabio, as the minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
Akpabio whose appointment was greeted with a little grumbling by the few that has arrested the development of the area through their corrupt activities, promised the world that it will not be corrupt business as usual, that he will change the development template of the region. And that he has done and still doing within the short period he has presided over the ministry in charge of the commission.
First, he worked tirelessly engendering peace to the region. Under his watch, Niger Delta metermorpised from a restless region where the vandalisation of oil installations, kidnapping of expertriate oil workers to a peaceful region; afterall, they say no development without peace. The current peace that has enveloped the area was acknowledged by members of the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities from the entire nine states that make up the region that visited the minister in his Abuja office recently. Led by Comrade Terry Obih, they passed a vote of confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari and Akpabio for bringing peace and development to to the area; what other endorsement do they need, an endorsement coming from the people that feel the impact of the arrested development of the area; a people that feel the pains of bad roads in that region, that suffer the absence of good portable pipe borne water, that has no hospital, no electricity. In fact, no amenities that make life worth living. They are the people who live and breathe the area, not Niger Deltans by name.
Aside the engendering of peace, Akpobio’s tenure as the minister in charge of the Commission has exposed the deep seated corruption in the Commission through the confession of the past Acting Managing Director, Kemebradikumo Pondei, recently at the National Assembly; a confession that led to the setting up of forensic audit probe of the Commission, the report of which has been summited to the presidency awaiting implementation to put a stop to such corrupt practices. For now, it is no longer corrupt business as usual.
It is also on record that Akpabio’s tenure as the minister in charge of the Commission has witnessed the completion and inauguration of the the following projects, 62 quarters for Police SPU in Port Harcourt to enable them police the area well, numerous roads, including the Abbah Unor road in Delta State that leads to Adonte, the country home of this writer, not forgetting the completion of 1000 beds hostel in University of Uyo among numerous others, some of, which are as old as the Commission itself.
There is no doubting the fact that Akpabio has brought his uncommon midas touch to bear with the Commission and that by the time his work is done in the ministry by 2023, his achievements will become the benchmark with which future Minister’s of the ministry will be judged by the people of the area and Nigerians in general.
