NDDC: A Fishpond for All Comers -By Tife Owolabi

There are major interesting issues in the Nation today which are filled with a twist and thorn. They are  two or more depending on which catches your fancy, but for me I have chosen; The hunter who became the hunted, Raymond Igbalode Abbas aka Hushpuppi who was ”kidnapped” to the United State, according to a statement by his attorney to face justice over Conspiring to Launder Hundreds of Millions of Dollars from Cybercrime and the NDDC 1.5 billion Naira palliatives for management and staff of the agency whilst their salaries are still been paid, the interim management committee, IMC, headed by Mr. Integrity, Professor, Kemebradikumo Pondei who supposedly signed out the fund to cushion their effect in a country going through a paucity of funds to meet its budget. This palliatives fund causes for concern and I choose to dwell on how the agency  has since turned into a fishing pond or “point and kill” for all comers to feast on.

On May 5, a seven-man ad-hoc committee of the Senate looking into the books of  NDDC on  financial recklessness got a revelation that the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC has  used N1.5bn to take care of themselves as COVID-19 Palliatives, this according to Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Managing Director of the commission. The lawmakers raised concerns over the spending at the NDDC, noting that the commission spent N40bn last three months without due process.However, Pondei when giving account of how money was spent, said “staff of the agency had to be catered for, too.” Can you beat that? This can only happen in a fish point feast or point and kill scenario.

Generally, a fishpond, is a controlled pond, artificial lake, or reservoir that is stocked with fish and is used in aquaculture for fish farming, or is used for recreational fishing or for ornamental purposes and for  Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) which  was established on June 5, 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo it has been nothing but a fish pond for all comers to fish and have the best catch like the Argungu Fishing Festival and coincidentally, the current chair of the Interim management committee is Pondei as one his names  “ponding out “fund for their self aggrandisement than development the interventionist agency was principally created to do.  

The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is one too many if  the information coming out of the place  is  anything to go by. It is nothing but mind-boggling and heart-wrenching and to say that the NDDC is a cesspit of corruption is an understatement. An interventionist agency saddled for solely for development as turned into the epicenter of endemic fraud and conspiracy, administration after administration leaving her people into abject ruins. 

Though, Nigeria has gotten Ballon D ’Or (Golden Ball) for corruption and it is an enemy to itself.  But the corruption I see and hear in the oil-rich Niger Delta agency is legendary and I see no reason why her people should complain of underdevelopment and poverty with the way poverty has been weaponized by her own people. The  region on its own has become her own worst enemy. The high and mighty have enslaved the masses with poverty using it  as a weapon of mental enslavement.  

How does it sound in the midst of poverty, some persons shared a whooping sum of 1.5 billion Naira for palliatives whilst the people die of hunger and misery? Or what can you say that since the establishment of NDDC records says that  over 15 trillion Naira has gone through it yet, no tangible of infrastructures to show for it except for individuals who have turned rich overnight and no wonder the people are living below the threshold of life expectancy and breathing below the tide due to self-inflicted injury. A place known for enormous oil wealth but all you see are pollutions, cultism and all manners of violent crimes have been her common description owing to corruption, highhandedness, malfeasance  and greeds as seen in this dispensation of interim management committee brought about All Progressive Congress, APC who promised positive change but all that stare our faces are less to be desired. First, corruption was systemic and it became endemic but now it is the oxygen many breathe to live and survive on and it can only mean one thing is either President Mohammed Buhari wasn’t  sincere about combating corruption or his the campaign was just a hoax. 

Just this imagine , while we are yet to fathom and digest how an in-house crew gulped a whopping  sum of 1.5bn Naira ,two adults started a theatric tirade of name calling , you are Mary Magdalene, because of her different marriages while the other said you are Hushpuppi  because he wanted  to loot funds (Yeyenututu) just to whittle-down the allegations of looted funds and some have started taking sides while the real issues are being downplayed? 

But the question now is, will the region continues to turn a blind eyes on how their  wealths are being cart-way by these politicians and charlatans?  But here are the answers , whenever you, the downtrodden ask for development, roads, hospitals, scholarships and etc ,from the federal government, be bold enough first to ask  your kinsmen who have headed one position at the NDDC because he or she has squandered it and feast on  it while he or she hold sway by the fish pond or point and kill as it is called in our local parlance also known as NDDC where corruption reign supreme even in the of forensic audit . 

Tife Owolabi. +2348064698045. Journalist, Niger Delta. @tifeowolabi facebook.com/Tife Owolabi ” if it bleeds it leads”…