Despite President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s stated fight against corruption, it would appear that the country\u2019s corruption crisis remains and may indeed be worsening. The on-going public hearing on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC has exposed the failing of the administration of President Buhari to make any meaningful headway. Testimonies at the National Assembly and the spectacle of the interim Managing Director of the Commission collapsing and apparently fainting from the barrage of questions by House of Representatives members, tells a sad story of the squandering and mismanagement of public funds. The NDDC which was set up in 2000 to help with the problem of underdevelopment in the States classified as Niger Delta has unfortunately earned a deserved reputation of drainpipe on public resources. Ranging from overinflated contracts to unexecuted contracts and outright pillaging of its resources, the NDDC has woefully failed to deliver on its promise.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recent travails of the Commission\nbegan when President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic audit into its\noperations in October 2019. Following this, a three-man Interim Management\nCommittee (IMC) was appointed with Joy Nunieh as Acting Managing Director of\nthe NDDC, to oversee the affairs of the Commission, while the inauguration of\nBoard Members of the Commission announced in August 2019, was put on hold. In\nFebruary 2020, President Buhari approved the addition of two members to the IMC\nand the appointment of Kemebradikumo Pondei as Acting Managing Director of the\nNDDC, to replace Nunieh, who was relieved of her position on ground of\ninsubordination to the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Godswill Akpabio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May 2020, the Senate commenced\ninvestigations into the financial details of the NDDC, including the\nexpenditure of over N22billion under the watch of the immediate past Managing\nDirector of the NDDC, Joy Nunieh. In response, the Commission made counter\nallegations, that NDDC contracts had been awarded to several lawmakers. Refuting\nallegations of misappropriation, Nunieh stated that no transaction was made in\nthe Commission without the approval of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr.\nAkpabio. This spurred a barrage of allegations between the former Managing\nDirector and the Minister and culminated in a siege to Nunieh\u2019s residence in\nPort Harcourt by security operatives in the early hours of Thursday, July 16\nuntil Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike intervened and gave her refuge in the\nGovernment House in Port Harcourt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IMC is currently before the relevant\ncommittees of the Senate and House of Representatives for investigative hearing,\nto explain a shortfall of N143billion in its 2019 budget. Some of the\nallegations plaguing the Commission include non-payment of fees and upkeep\nallowances to beneficiaries of the NDDC Overseas Scholarship scheme and disbursement\nof funds to staff of the Commission as COVID-19 relief package. At an\ninvestigative hearing session of the NDDC House Committee on July 16, where the\nmanagement of the Commission was supposed to provide explanations for discrepancies\nin the details its 2019 budget, Acting Managing Director of the Commission,\nKemebradikumo Pondei refused to make any presentation, accused the Chairman of\nthe committee, Tunji-Ojo of corrupt practices and walked out of the meeting.\nThis caused the latter to recuse himself from presiding over the hearing at the\nresumption of the session on Monday, July 20. The Deputy Chairman of the\ncommittee presided over the session and led the investigations. However, things\ntook a dramatic turn when Mr. Pondei, who had been struggling to provide answers to the questions posed to him by the\ncommittee suddenly fainted. This led to a thirty-minute break before the\nsession resumed for the questioning of the Niger Delta Affairs Minister,\nGodswill Akpabio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Observers are curious as to how the\nissues surrounding the affairs of the NDDC will be resolved. Issues of\naccountability and transparency are not peculiar to the NDDC, as the operations\nof several other government agencies and parastatals are characterised by\nimpropriety, discrepancies and lack of transparency. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s stated fight against corruption, it would appear that the country\u2019s corruption crisis remains and may indeed be worsening. The on-going public hearing on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC has exposed the failing of the administration of President Buhari to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-1591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nddc-probe-exposes-nigerias-corruption-underbelly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1591\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}