Was NDDC an Obasanjo Trojan Horse to the Niger Delta?

In 1999, six (6) oil producing states rejected Obasanjo’s suggestion of a Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) when Obasanjo first attempted to shove it down their throats.

What the states wanted at the time was for the Federal Government to deliver world class infrastructure intervention which was beyond the scope and capacity of most of the states. They were not looking for a body that will try to duplicate the roles of a state ot local government albeit with far less quality.

Governors like Peter Odili wanted a National Railway line that extended from Lagos to Port Harcourt and passed through high density cities and towns in Rivers State like Ahoada and Omoku.

Victor Attah, an archietct who was Governor of Akwa Ibom State at the time, wanted a National Super Highway that traverses Uyo, Calabar, Port Harcourt and Lagos. He envisaged Akwa Ibom as a Center of Tourism that was well connected to the other economic power houses of Southern Nigeria.

Donald Duke of Cross River was desperate for a Super Highway and Fast rail that connects his hometown Calabar with the city he grew up in, Lagos. He knew that would fire up his dreams of Tinapa as well as help Cross River State evacuate the more than $1 billion worth of agricultural produce target he expected to achieve at the end of his tenure.

Bayelsa’s Diepreye Alamieyeseigha always fantasized about driving from Amassoma, his home town to Lagos in less than 5 hours in any of his 8- or 12-cylinder automobiles.

None of them wanted NDDC. Their reasons were real and true. There were political, fiscal, social and economic concerns that made at the time and it all made sense.

Yet Obasanjo shoved his NDDC down their throat. Tried as they may, their attempts all fell by the wayside.

At the time, it would have cost less than ₦200 billion to successfully reconstruct East West Road.

It would have cost just about ₦1 Trillion to successfully construct a Lagos to Calabar Coastal Road, or Lagos to Calabar Coastal Railway or a Coastal Superhighway with a median railway line as the Tinubu Administration has proactively chosen to do.

And so the strong-headed and strong-willed retired General had his day at the end, and until this day, NDDC remains, unstable to find its feet in the midst of shattering corruption, mind boggling incompetence and baseline malfeasance.

It was not only the Governors and key regional stakeholders who had a problem with Obasanjo over the creation of NDDC. The National Assembly too had a running battle with Obasanjo over the NDDC Bill.

As a matter of fact, muscle flexing between Obasanjo and both houses of the National Assembly over this matter hindered and slowed down the delivery of the 2000 Budget with aides of the presidency and national assembly exchanging combative words over the media within the first quota of 2000.

In July 2000, the NDDC Act of 2000 was passed by both houses of the National Assembly and endorsed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Umar Ghali N’Abba and President of the Senate, Chuba Okadigbo who was impeached the following month (August 2000) after the 109-man Senate overwhelmingly voted 81-14 in favour of removing him as Senate President after he refused to comply with a House resolution asking him to resign or step down.

Since then, more than N7 Trillion has been spent on NDDC.

From 2001 to 2019, NDDC had received more than N6 Trillion from the Federal Government, with N3.3 Trillion being budgetary allocations and N2.4 Trillion from statutory and non-statutory sources.

In 2023, the Managing Director of NDDC stated that the Federal Government was owing NDDC about N2 Trillion being sums owed by the Federal Government in budgetary allocations

In July 2024, the National Assembly passed the N1.9 trillion NDDC Budget for 2024. The management of NDDC has also publicly stated that they will be borrowing about One Trillion Naira to fund the 2024 budget.

The challenge with such borrowings is that NDDC will end up awarding contracts to incompetent companies owned by politicians and their cronies who will end up delivering projects that will not stand the test of time and will not add any value to the development of the Niger Delta which is supposed to be the purpose.

For instance, after borrowing One Trillion Naira, NDDC might decide to award a major contract like rehabilitation of East West Road to a company owned by a former Governor of Delta State and then in less than two years, the road project begins to disintegrate. Is that not a loss to the Niger Delta?

With the massive investments that the Federal Government has made on NDDC in these years, one wonders why NDDC has not been able to ensure corresponding GDP improvement in the Niger Delta region.

Would it not have been better for the Federal Government to use the funds that have been expended on NDDC and the Ministry of Niger Delta to build long term infrastructure projects like a well designed East West Road? Or a well designed Lagos to Calabar Railway or Super Highway?

Would it not have been better if the Federal Government had invested that same amount in improving the quality and quantity of road distribution in the Niger Delta?

Would it not have been better IF the Federal Government had used that same amount of money to improve the quality and standard of all Federal Universities in the Niger Delta?

So the question that Niger Deltans should continue to ask themselves for generations to come is: Was NDDC an Obasanjo Trojan Horse? that has ended up shortchanging the people of the Niger Delta?

Time will tell.

Kerley S George writes from Port Harcourt