Controversial bill to include Gombe/Bauchi and the raging battle for the soul of the NDDC -By Efe Agabi

The bill to include newly recognized oil producing states into the NDDC did not come as a surprise, it is a continuation of the deliberate attempt to pillage the NDDC and make it a cash cow for the coterie of some elites whose insatiable search for slush fund is akin to that of the chicken as described by Obierike in things fall apart. There is no denying the fact that the NDDC has never been embroiled in so much fisticuffs, pervasive corruption, rudderless leadership and controversies like currently reported. The refusal of the President to inaugurate a substantive board has generated diverse reactions with non-state actors threatening brimstone. It is regrettable that some elements in the South have managed to eke out some conceptual ramifications to underscore and commend the approach of the government to addressing the rot in the NDDC. The forensic audit was meant to unfurl perceived corruption in the commission but the outcome of the audit does not suggest a light at the end of a tunnel. Can it be said that the lull experienced in the commission within the period of audit where contractors were deprived payment with many projects discontinued is justified?

As Henry David Thoreau reminded us in his essay ‘civil disobedience’, the problem of the populace is too much obedience, and oblivion of the brute fact that the law is the plague of the people. For this cause Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine were led to the gallow, for same public obedience the PIA Act was made to robe Peter to pay Paul, for same obedience states that do not suffer the debilitating environmental consequences of oil exploration would be included in the NDDC as requested by the bill sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola which would increase the numbers of pillagers as the bill is obviously not in the interest of the Niger Delta Question. Some Comrades have expressed deep worries over how the region has lost voice in the determination of accruals from oil, and it will play out again. Who will stop the bill given the lack of unity of focus in the south. Let me pause to commend the courage demonstrated by the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Orhohide and others in the national Assembly that now find pleasure in provoking uproar in the Niger Delta. They wrote their names in gold, as espoused by the DSP, the difference between OMPADEC and NDDC is clear, the commission was meant to ameliorate the plight of the people whose experiences with a contaminated environmental has attracted international condemnation. He described his Senator Solomon Adeola as a meddlesome interloper given his poor sense of geography, how can Lagos in the South West and Gombe and Bauchi fit into a regional commission in the Niger Delta. “What this lead debate clearly shows is that my colleague from Lagos is a classic meddlesome interloper. The NDDC is a regional development commission. We must draw a distinction between the NDDC and the oil and mineral producing commission” Senator Agege lamented. Senator Urhoghide could not also hide his displeasure ““If the idea is that they want to share out of the 13 percent derivation, they are free as long as they produce oil, but to say they must belong to Niger Delta makes a mockery of the creation of NDDC.

Empirical findings have reported the destruction of livelihood systems in host communities by multinational oil companies that operates with little on no regulation. Akoma(2021), Abosede(2019), Ovie(2014) have reported that the integrity of the prescient mangrove forest that provides food and medicinal herbs has been depleted beyond the capacity for natural remediation. The case is not different from what the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported from a scientific assessment of the impact of oil pollution on parts of the Ogoni environment. UNEP indicated massive soil and water contamination in Ogoni land, which has significantly compromised sources of livelihood and was slowly poisoning the inhabitants. So alarmed was UNEP about the findings that it recommended that inhabitants of the area immediately stop using water from all their traditional sources (see Homef report, 2021). One will be forced to ask if the states clamoring for inclusion also suffer the different layers of oil crises in communities where the ingenuity to harness crude oil using locally fabricated facilities is criminalised, tagged illegal refineries whereas the mining of gold in the North has been granted legitimacy within the framework of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI). Do they suffer the black soot ravaging Port Harcourt, Uyo, Warri and Calabar and the carcinogenic effects of chemical infusion into the aqua. Do they suffer child deformities and the debilitating effects of the death of aquatic life? Are they solely fixated on the golden eggs even if the geese suffers?.

Has the NDDC has morphed into a national cake that must capture the multiplicity of culture, ethnicity and religion in Nigeria. Are we heading to a point where the other States would be made to benefit from projects earmarked for the North East Development commission? Although the Southern Senators did not express worry over the clamour by the new states to enjoy the 13% accruals to oil producing States, the quantum of oil contributions to the national treasury by Gombe, Bauchi and Lagos is still infinitesimal. Economists are worried that Nigeria might not recover from the resource curse or the Dutch disease if the fixation on oil is not checked to allow economic diversification. But one imperative that must be drawn from the bill sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola by the Niger Deltans is that other regions are less interested in the germane issues of development, deprivation, economic and environmental sabotage and the criminalisation of restive youths but tend to pillage the region for personal gain. It therefore reveals the need to deepen the sense of consensus demonstrated by Southern senators when they jettisoned primordial sentiments and party affiliation to push back the frontiers of injustice as demonstrated in the PIA. A second imperative is to deepen conversations at the community level across the region to add voice to the clamour of the Senators fighting for the soul of the commission even though the the commission has veered from its fundamental mission. There cannot be a commission with regional appellation ‘Niger Delta’ housing Gombe and Bauchi.