Amidst growing tension in the Niger Delta region, Nseobong Okon-Ekong recounts how the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, has serially reneged on his promised dates to conclude the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2019, thereby delaying the inauguration of a substantive NDDC Board

“So, the forensic audit of NDDC is on course and it is progressing very well and I am happy with the progress made so far. And I am very certain that by end of July which is just a month and a few weeks away the final result will be given to the president for implementation.”

The above were the exact words of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio while addressing State House Correspondents on June 22, 2021 after meeting with the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

But it was a lie. And Akpabio knew he was merely engaging the media to buy time. Because he had told so many lies in the past concerning the issue of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), it didn’t matter anymore. Like other times, he would mention a date when pressed to speak on the inauguration of the Senate-approved board of the NDDC. By now, any stakeholder who gave him the benefit of the doubt has since withdrawn the courtesy, since it has become apparent that the Minister never had any intention to honour his word.

Catalogue of Lies by Akpabio

Trying to sift through all the ugly lies told by Akpabio may take one back to his days as Governor of Akwa Ibom State. For instance, he claimed to build one industry in each of the 31 local government areas of the state. It was a lie. It is common knowledge that every project that the former governor put a completion plaque on with his name on it were between 60 and 70 percent complete. He had perfected the act of causing people to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. He would ensure that the shell or the exterior of building was fitted
with glass; and looking very good. The commissioning would be a big media event, but all the fanfare began and ended outside the building. He did this with the e-library in Uyo; the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Ikot Ekpene; the Ibom Tropicana and the Ibom Specialist Hospital, to mention a few. These projects have all been redesigned and remodeled by the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration, in order to regain their intended purpose. Of course, the state ended up paying by far more for Akpabio’s lies. Akpabio said many things that everyone could see were not true, perhaps, because he fancies himself as a smooth talker.

Having made a huge capital from these notable lies as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio took his dishonest enterprise to the Niger Delta Ministry when he was sworn in as the Minister. What he did not reckon with, however, was the volume of pressure coming from the eight other states-Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers, that constitute the Niger Delta region. He was familiar with Akwa Ibom State, which he governed between 2007 and 2015. He was used to playing with it on his little finger with little or no opposition, which he easily ran rings around or crushed ruthlessly. Now, he had to deal with other ethnic nationalities who had a long history of combative struggle; like the Ogonis, the Ijaws, the Itsekiris and the Urhobos. Still Akpabio was hopeful that his time-tested axiom that ‘what money cannot buy, more money will buy’ would see him through. So, he began the most grandeur scheming and crafting of a web of lies. His ultimate aim was to renegotiate the composition of the NDDC Board on his own terms. The sharp sword of militancy that these ethnic groups, particularly their youths are known for, may have been diminished by chicanery of Akpabio; playing one group against another.

Threats of a shutdown of oil production in the Niger Delta region if Akpabio failed to inaugurate the Senate-approved NDDC Board by the Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC), Niger Delta Avengers, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and scores of groups and elders have only fired Akpabio to get worse.

Delicate Peace in the Niger Delta

The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which, accounts for over 95 percent of export earnings and about 40 percent of government
revenues, according to the International Monetary Fund. Nigerian oil production fell to around 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) earlier this year following a spate of militant attacks. Over the past few years, Nigeria, Africa’s top oil exporter, has been beset by a multitude of problems, notably decreased crude production and exports, oil theft and pipeline attacks,
stalled economic reforms and recovery, and the threat of oil price volatility. Therefore, the government can ill-afford another season of targeted onslaught against International Oil Companies operating in Nigeria.

Since the year 2000 when the Niger Delta Development Commission, a federal government agency was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, there have been sustained efforts to improve the living condition of the people of the region, in order to stem the anger of the youths, which led to oil theft, illegal bunkering, kidnapping of expatriate workers in the oil sector and vandalisation of oil pipelines.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was announced by the then Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua on September 10, 2008. On June 25, 2009, the Federal
Government announced amnesty which included included forgiveness and automatic freedom from any form of prosecution whatsoever which was expected to run for a 60-day period from August 6 to October 4, 2009. Militants in the restive oil-producing Niger Delta frequently the fragile peace in the region and this has thrown up several challenges.

The latest of these challenge to peace in the Niger Delta is Akpabio’s refusal to inaugurate the substantive Board of the NDDC, which has been screened and approved by the Senate. Working with a board composed of personalities supposedly influenced by the likes of the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole and Transportation Minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi was simply out of the question. He had to find a way to keep the inauguration of the board in abeyance. He came up with the ingenious idea of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) on October 29, 2019 for a six-month period. The three-member IMC headed by Ms. Joi Nunieh was a surprising and audacious move by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, because the IMC was alien to the NDDC Act. This fact was not lost on Akpabio who is a lawyer.

Two months to the end of the IMC, Akpabio had graduated in his lies. On February 21, 2020, he promised completion of forensic audit in December 2020. Since then, he has spent every day of his enduring ministerial appointment building tissues of lies about a phantom forensic report at the NDDC, which he only he understands. How he manages to pass of this illogicality to President Muhammadu Buhari is baffling. That he finds his way around federal legislators is because he has bullied them into submission with evidence showing their complicity in various contract scam, which resulted in the infamous, “off the mic” episode during a House of Representatives hearing into allegations of fraud at the NDDC.

Also promising to Presidential affirmation to the final conclusion of the forensic audit, on June 24, 2021, while receiving the Ijaw National Congress at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari said that “based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.”

Recall that the Niger Delta Minister Chief Godswill Akpabio also in January 2021 hinted that the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission would be concluded and the report submitted before April this year.

This external audit is not only taking place for nearly two years now but NDDC is being run haphazardly, without a Governing Board as provided for in its Establishment Act, at the whims and caprices of Akpabio.

Gradually, the Minister of Niger Delta has apparently turned the whole forensic audit exercise into a circus where the process is not only being micromanaged, but that the NDDC is being run by the minister’s handpicked proxies.

Now, he fixes and reneges on the termination date of the forensic audit under spurious excuses to justify running the agency like his personal fiefdom.

When the Minister sold the idea of an Interim Management for the NDDC in October 2019, Akpabio assured that the Interim Management Committee will only stay in office for six months to supervise the audit after which the Board will be inaugurated. It was even pointed out by legal luminaries that the interim arrangement was patently illegal.

By the time the expected deadline of March 2020 for the submission of the audit report was near, Senator Akpabio sacked his first IMC Acting Managing Director Ms Joi Nunieh and appointed a new Acting Managing Director, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei who was his classmate at Federal Government College Port Harcourt, and extended the stay of the IMC to December 2020, by which time he said the audit will be concluded and the Board put in place. Just when that was drawing near, he sacked the Interim Management Committee and appointed his personal aide, Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa, as Interim Sole Administrator with a promised forensic audit completion date of March 2021.

With this latest failure of the Niger Delta Minister to keep to the promised July date for the completion of the forensic audit, NDDC continues to be run in violation of the law and common sense.

The Minister has practically run the NDDC directly using his proxies as Interim Managements since October 2019. During this period over N800 billion has been reportedly spent by Akpabio’s Interim Managements on frivolous items and questionable payments, as evidenced by whistleblowers and the report of the National Assembly investigations in July 2020.

Audits have been done in Nigeria previously, creditably and independently, such as the NNPC audit, which was carried out by Price Waterhouse a few years back while the legitimate Board and management were still in place.

Similarly, when in 2016 the Buhari Administration audited all revenue agencies, including the NNPC, NPA, FIRS and others, it did not set aside the Governing Boards. This is the first time an external audit has been employed as an excuse to suspend the law governing a public institution.

The delay in inaugurating a substantive board for the development agency had generated widespread protests in the oil-rich belt in June this year as stakeholders rejected continuous stay in office of a sole administrator.

In October 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic audit of the operations of NDDC from 2001 to 2019.

Receiving governors of the states that make up the Commission President Buhari said what is presently on the ground in the Niger Delta region does not justify the huge resources that have been made available to the organisation.

According to him, “I try to follow the Act setting up these institutions especially the NDDC. With the amount of money that the Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues. The projects said to have been done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so much billions and when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done. The consultants must also prove that they are competent,” the President said.

He then said that he would wait for the report of the audit before deciding on the next line of action regarding the organisation.

After nearly two years of what is turning to be an endless forensic audit, President Buhari needs to put in place the substantive Governing Board of NDDC to return the agency to the path of law, broad representation, checks and balances, probity, equity and accountability to the Niger Delta people.

***Please Box*****TIMELINE OF THE NDDC BOARD SAGA****

July 2019 – Senator Akpabio appointed Minister of Niger Delta Affairs

August 27, 2019 – President Buhari approves appointment of a 16-member Governing Board for NDDC

October 17, 2019 – President Buhari orders forensic audit of NDDC

October 18, 2019 – President Buhari writes Senate President and forwards the names of 16-member Governing Board to Senate for confirmation

October 29, 2019 (AM) – The Senate President reads the President’s letter seeking confirmation of NDDC Board members at plenary and refers same to the Senate Committee on Niger Delta for screening

October 29, 2019 (PM) – Minister of Niger Delta, surprisingly swears in a three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC), headed by Ms. Joi Nunieh, for a six-month tenure

November 5, 2019 – Senate confirms the appointment of NDDC Board members sent by President Buhari and urges him to go ahead and inaugurate them

February 20, 2020 – President Buhari sacks Joi Nunieh as Ag. MD of NDDC IMC and appoints Professor Keme Pondei as replacement

February 21, 2020 – Akpabio promises completion of Forensic audit in December 2020

May 5, 2020 – Senate commences probe of NDDC IMC for allegedly spending N40B in three months without due process

July 20, 2020 – AG. MD of NDDC, Prof Pondei collapses during interrogation at House of Representatives probe of NDDC IMC illegal expenditure

July 24, 2020 – Senate finds NDDC IMC guilty and orders the IMC to refund N4.9B illegal expenditure

May 27, 2021 – Ijaw Youth Congress makes good its one-month notice and commence disruption of business in Niger Delta and shut down of NDDC offices over failure to inaugurate NDDC Board

May 30, 2021 – Former Niger Delta Militant, Government Ekemopulo (Tompolo) gives FG 7-day ultimatum to inaugurate NDDC Board

June 3, 2021 – Akpabio flies into Delta and meets with Tompolo and other Niger Delta leaders, in company of Delta state Deputy Governor, Otuaro, and promises to inaugurate the Board of NDDC by the end of June

June 22, 2021 – Akpabio, after meeting with Chief of Staff to President Buhari, announces end of July as final date for the completion and submission of Forensic audit report to President Buhari

June 24, 2021 – President Buhari, while receiving in audience the leadership of Ijaw National Congress promises inauguration of NDDC Board on receipt of forensic report at the end of July

July 31, 2021 – Akpabio fails to submit the NDDC Forensic audit report to the Presidency as promised

QUOTE 1

the Niger Delta Minister Chief Godswill Akpabio also in January 2021 hinted that the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission would be concluded and the report submitted before April this year. This external audit is not only taking place for nearly two years now but NDDC is being run haphazardly, without a Governing Board as provided for in its Establishment Act, at the whims and caprices of Akpabio. Gradually, the Minister of Niger Delta has apparently turned the whole forensic audit exercise into a circus where the process is not only being micromanaged, but that the NDDC is being run by the minister’s handpicked proxies. Now, he fixes and reneges on the termination date of the forensic audit under spurious excuses to justify running the agency like his personal fiefdom

QUOTE 2

Akpabio extended the stay of the IMC to December 2020, by which time he said the audit will be concluded and the Board put in place. Just when that was drawing near, he sacked the Interim Management Committee and appointed his personal aide, Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa, as Interim Sole Administrator with a promised forensic audit completion date of March 2021. With this latest failure of the Niger Delta Minister to keep to the promised July date for the completion of the forensic audit, NDDC continues to be run in violation of the law and common sense. The Minister has practically run the NDDC directly using his proxies as Interim Managements since October 2019. During this period over N800 billion has been reportedly spent by Akpabio’s Interim Managements on frivolous items and questionable payments, as evidenced by whistleblowers and the report of the National Assembly investigations in July 2020 (THISDAY)

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