NDDC Was Like An ATM Point For Some Nigerians – Godswill Akpabio

By Akinwale Kasali

The Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio revealed that corruption and political interference have since disrupted the original purpose for the establishment of the NDDC.

Akpabio, speaking over the weekend in an interview programme with the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, said he was sure that those who founded the NDDC would be disappointed with what has become of the commission.

The NDDC was set up in 2000 by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to fast-track development in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Nineteen years later, the region still remains backward in terms of infrastructure and standard of living, despite the huge amount of money made from oil-exploitation in the area.

Akpabio added that he was not proud, personally, of the Commission’s scorecard, and that as the supervising minister he was determined to get the place to work for the good of the people.

The Minister said the NDDC is  noted for substandard and abandoned projects.

“We currently have about 12,000 abandoned projects across the nine states of the Niger Delta. If those things were completed, you can imagine that the area would have been turned into an Eldorado.

“There is no way NDDC road can last (for) even two years.

I think people were treating the place as an ATM, where you just walk in there to go and pluck money and go away, I don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency.”