NDDC: A House Of Shame -By John Kokome

Who has cursed our country Nigeria with negative narratives week in week out? Is ours truly a country that genuinely desires growth and development? In my humble opinion, I do not think we are ready to advance as a country. It beats my imagination, to hear that a commission established to bring about development to a region that has been so marginalized in the project called Nigeria, with oil spoil all over the land, a region blessed with mass body of water but ironically none good enough for drinking, poverty everywhere, environmental degradation and air pollution going on a daily basis unabated.

The region obviously is the goose that lays the golden eggs which has kept the fabrics of our country’s economy going. I am talking about no other region than the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, popularly referred to as the South-South region. It is important to mention that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in year 2000 gifted the region with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to appease the region for the several years of deprivation and neglect and in 2008, late former President Umaru Musa Yar’dua of blessed memory created the Ministry of Niger Delta to further consolidate the efforts of the NDDC. Little did he know that it will someday become the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to a very few individual rogues who incidentally are from the region.

From 2008 till date, the amount of money that have been pumped into the region through the NDDC has ran into billions of naira, enough in my own estimation to transform the region significantly, if not completely, but what do we have today? Birds perching from one NDDC account to the other, sucking the region dry. The same birds are all over the place singing like the popular canary bird, indeed a very disgraceful and embarrassing songs not befitting for so called sons and daughters of the region. The commission has been transformed into a house of common thieves suffocating the region unending.

However, it is very disappointing to hear that highly placed NDDC officials as well as very senior government officials both at the executive arm as well as the legislative arm have all been allegedly involved in this racketeering. It is indeed a crime against humanity and all those found guilty should be punished accordingly. In a sane society all those who have been linked directly or indirectly ought to have picked up with appropriate sanction melted to those currently occupying any position in the country for thorough investigation to be carried out and those found culpable brought to justice.

This is the time for the region to rise up and speak with one unequivocal voice to say enough of the desecration and stealing of our common patrimony. The perpetrators of this infractions right from the establishment of the commission should be made to return every kobo that has been stolen from that common purse. The level of corruption going on at various government agencies and parastals is quite worrisome and very embarrassing to the country. The current administration of President Muhammudu Bahuri must be firm in its fight against corruption, if that is the achievement he can record in eight years, I think it will be worth the while and a worthy legacy to bequeath to the country.

To regain the peoples trust and confidence, the NDDC as well as other government agencies must be sanitized for growth and development to be achieved. A beautiful bride and pride of the Niger Delta region has become a house of shame and disgrace. The region must demand that the needful be done to return the NDDC to its pride of place in the country. The ongoing probe by the National Assembly and the forensic audit of the activities of the commission from 2001 to 2019 as ordered by the President must be thorough and the recommendations fully implemented to indeed reassure Nigerians that the war against corruption is real and not a hoax.

John Kokome
Public Relations Practitioner
Lagos State
kokomejohn@yahoo.com