The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has attributed the high number of uncompleted projects of the Commission to previous leadership instability.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme, Ogbuku said that one of the challenges of the NDDC in the past 25 years was the high turnover of leadership, noting, “In the past 25 years, NDDC has had 16 Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers, which caused instability in the system.”
The NDDC boss noted that the Commission was determined to make the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government a reality in the Niger Delta region. He restated the Board and Management’s commitment to the mandate given to the Commission by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to change the narrative in the Niger Delta region.
According to him, “President Tinubu charged us to complete and deliver all abandoned critical projects across the Niger Delta Region. “
“Niger Deltans should be grateful to Mr President for his commitment to ensuring the sustainable development of the region. I can assure you that before the end of Mr President’s tenure, we will complete all abandoned legacy projects”.
Speaking about collaborations with other organisations, Ogbuku noted that the NDDC had made significant gains since it adopted Public-Private Partnerships, PPPs, as a major policy thrust. He said, “For most of our projects, we adopted the Partnership model as it’s easier to drive projects with Partnership.”
He said one such positive outcome was signing a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between the NDDC and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, to collaborate on key projects that would impact the people positively.
He explained: “One area we have improved upon is in project monitoring. All our state offices have been equipped with vehicles and other necessary equipment for project monitoring.”
“Since we came on board, to ensure our people are not spectators, we ensured that local contractors do several of our projects. The quality of jobs is a result of adequate supervision, and we ensure that they meet international standards through our oversight. local contractors do several of the projects we have been commissioning.”
Ogbuku said that the Commission, as part of its rebirth and rewind policy, was “transiting from transaction to transformation” in the process of developing the Niger Delta region.
In the area of entrepreneurship, Ogbuku noted that the NDDC, through the Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, had streamlined engagement in giving support to farmers and verifiable entrepreneurs in the region.
He observed: “We have built a comprehensive database for the youths in the region. This will enable the Commission to plan, as well as share relevant data with other development agencies that may require it for their planning purposes.
The Managing Director affirmed that the Commission was engaging all stakeholders to ensure harmony and cooperation in the task of developing the hitherto neglected Niger Delta region.
Reflecting on the achievements of the NDDC, Ogbuku said: “We believe that in partnership with stakeholders, we are going to achieve more, and development in our region will be faster and more holistic. We are not competing with any state government, as we only complement their efforts.
Ogbuku stated that the NDDC had implemented measures to ensure financial discipline within the Commission. This, he said, necessitated the engagement of KPMG to design a corporate governance system for the Commission. He explained that the corporate governance structure would increase the confidence of partners who work with the Commission: “We engaged KPMG to help check and moderate our SOPs,” he said.
