BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Less than 24 hours after the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, read a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari requesting the Senate to screen and confirm his 16 nominees for the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio has in a deft move, also set-up what he described as an Interim Management Committee to take-over from Mrs. Akwagaga’s interim Management of NDDC, which was constituted in August this year.
The Senate President had at plenary on Tuesday referred the President Buhari’s nominees into the NDDC Board to the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs for screening with a directive to report back to plenary in one week.
Already, the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Chaired by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi has invited the nominees of the President for the NDDC Board to appear for screening on Thursday, October 31.
The seeming counter moves by Senator Akpabio has jolted stakeholders and experts from the Niger Delta region in particular and other Nigerians as they expressed shock at brazen development which is likely to portray the country in bad light in view of the possible confusion the conflicting action by the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta’s would create.
Speaking on the matter, a Port Harcourt based legal practitioner, Dr. Stanley Wali explained that Act No. 6 of 2000 which established the NDDC, clearly states that the Commission will be governed by a properly constituted Board nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
According to him; “It is an anomaly that nearly after one year of dissolving the last Board, and appointment of an interim Management led by Professor Brambaifa, followed by a current Acting Managing Director, Mrs Akwagaga, another interim Management is being setup by the Minister of Niger Delta when a new Board has already been announced by President Muhammadu Buhari and whose names have been submitted to the Senate for screening and confirmation.”
In his own reaction, the President of Ijaw Diaspora Coalition, Elder Johnson Ebibai noted that on assumption of duty as Acting Managing Director of NDDC in August, Mrs. Akwagaga stated that her mandate was to oversee the smooth running of the NDDC until a substantive board is cleared to assume office.
Ebibai therefore wonders what has changed to warrant the setting up of another interim management by the Ministry of Niger Delta in the middle of a constitutional process of confirmation of a new Board appointed by the President.
He therefore called on the Senate to quickly confirm the new Board so that the President can inaugurate them to assume duty to save the nation from this travesty that portrays the country in very bad light and detrimental to the development of the Niger Delta region.
