NDDC Appointment: Group Urges President Buhari To Comply With NDDC Act

By Akinwale Kasali

A Group under the auspices of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to judiciously comply with the Act that brought into existence the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

PANDEF said that the procedure in the appointment of a substantive Board and Management of the NDDC should be followed to the letter, stressing that there was nothing to celebrate in the sack of the Commission ’s Interim Administrator, Effiong Akwa.

President Buhari had, on Thursday, announced the removal of Akwa and  replaced him with the most senior Director in the Commission, Engr. Emmanuel Audu Ohwavborua, an Urhobo man from Delta State.

Ken Robinson, PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary said that appointment of a substantive Administrator for the NDDC is long overdue.

In a Statement by Robinson on behalf of PANDEF, he said, “We received the news of the sack of the Interim Administrator, and that is the third or fourth interim administrator for the NDDC in the last three years, since 2019.

“And so there is nothing one should be excited about, apart from saying that giving the inconsistencies of the government that they will follow this through and the NDDC will have a substantive board and management in the shortest possible time.”

The statement expressed worry about why the Federal Government is about to constitute a Board for the interventionist agency in the twilight of its administration.

“Why is it that about seven months to the end of the administration, you are appointing Management and Governing Council for a statutory Council? It means that the new administration will inherit whoever is appointed and obviously would be based on the recommendation of people in the corridors of power and may not follow merit.

“But whatever it is, they have promised to do what is right. They have said they are going to send nominees for the board and management to the National Assembly. We hope that would be done as quickly as possible, and that the Niger Delta people will have a board of the NDDC that is what it should be.”

The PANDEF said the Federal Government should strictly follow the guidelines of the NDDC Act in the appointment of the chairman of the new board.

“And that is one of the challenges that we have heard in terms of governance. Lack of adherence to the rule of law.

“The Act establishing the NDDC is explicit in terms of chairmanship of the board. That it rotates alphabetically. The last Chairman of the board of the NDDC was Edoma Egba, from Cross River State.

“So, if we follow that order, the next Chairman of the board of the NDDC should come from Delta State. Anything otherwise is a breach of the Act establishing the commission,” the statement stated.