Elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Pa Edwin Clark, has called for the removal of Ondo, Abia, and Imo states from the nine states that make up the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
To actualize this, Clark urged President Bola Tinubu to forward an Executive bill to the National Assembly to amend the 2000 Act which established the NDDC.
The nine states are Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
The Leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), who made the call at a news conference held in Abuja on Tuesday, said the inclusion of the three states in the commission was a “political aberration’’.
“NDDC should remain the six original Niger Delta Coastal States. All other oil producing states should establish a relationship with the oil companies and Nigeria.
“If NDDC is to succeed, the three states should be severed from the Act. This is particularly now that oil has been found in other parts of Nigeria including Anambra which is already producing 0.9%, Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kogi, and Lagos States.
“They cannot therefore be part of NDDC. The NDDC Establishment Act 2000 signed by the then Senate President Chuba Okadigbo outlined the functions of the nine states and who should be the Executive Management.
“One should bear in mind that the addition of Ondo, Imo and Abia was a political aberration. For me to demand for the removal of Non-Niger Delta Oil Producing States from NDDC is for NDDC to succeed.
“The success of the NDDC is the success of Nigeria. There was a reason why Imo, Abia and Ondo were brought into NDDC. Geographically they are not niger delta; they are not coastal states. It was a political aberration.
“The Federal Government should make arrangements to accommodate them as it is in NDCC same principle to be used not to disorganised the NDDC we want to succeed,’’ the one-time Information Minister under the military said.
Describing the NDDC as a liability company which also has majority shareholders and minority shareholders, Clark also said: “A situation where a minority shareholder in a limited liability company would like to be a managing director of the company, it is unreasonable, improper and chaotic.
“That is the main reason why I said no. It is not possible for a minority shareholder of even 5 per cent to be the Chairman or Managing Director of the limited liability company. It will be unfair and inequitable for a state that produces 1.02 per cent to produce managing director of the NDDC.
“I know Nigeria as we are, the tendency will be to develop their own minority oil producing state to develop their area at the expense of the majority of oil producing states which incidentally happen to sum up to over 90 per cent of the oil.
“It is, therefore, unreasonable, provocative and selfish for Imo which produces only 1.02 per cent quantum of oil to demand removal of the Chief Executives of NDDC Board that has been confirmed by the Senate.”
The Ijaw leader said he considers himself as the oldest stakeholder of NDDC who is still alive but regretted that NDDC like OMPADEC that was first established has failed to achieve its objectives.
“At this juncture, it may be necessary to state how the NDDC Bill included Imo State and Abia State from the South-East and Ondo State from South-West Nigeria. We fully participated when President Obasanjo the initiator of the Bill invited us; HRM (Dr) H.J.R. Dappa-Biriye (OON,JP), my humble self and Sen. Fred Brume as leaders and we went with some other leaders of the South-South Peoples Conference for dinner at Aso Rock, on the 22nd August 2000.
“During that interaction with Mr President, we went through the drafted Bill of NDDC which he said he will later submit to the Attorney General of the Federation for necessary action; extracts of the discussion we had with him are reproduced hereunder;
“He informed us that Northerners were opposed to the establishment of NDDC, instead they also demanded Shiroro Dam Commission and President Obasanjo advised that we should accept the three non-Niger Delta oil producing states of Abia, Imo and Ondo State in order to have their added votes of the South-East and South-West Legislators for the Bill to succeed. I also asked him if there is oil in Sokoto and that will Sokoto be part of the Niger Delta? And we moved on”.
“Thereafter, we met the Representatives of the three (3) States at the National Assembly and they were very happy. We discussed the strategy that will contribute to the passing of the NDDC Bill and we did the lobbying together,’’ Clark told newsmen.
Continuing, the elder statesman said:“Some vicious and unpatriotic Nigerians saw the establishment of the NDDC as a denial or deprivation of the Nigerians from enjoying the wealth that accrues from the oil resources from the Niger Delta.
“It is noted that during the National Conference of 2014, we recommended the setting up of the North East Development Commission to rebuild the war devastating areas of North-East as it was done in Germany and the rest of Europe called the Marshall Plan after the second world war of 1939-1945.
“After the agreement with the members of the National Assembly from the three (3) Southern States, the joint committee went round to lobbied National Assembly Members including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and Chairman of Appropriation Committee when President Obasanjo refused to sign his own Executive Bill which he presented to the National Assembly.
“The National Assembly used their constitutional power and after thirty (30) days, they signed the bill into law.’’
Clark recalled that Cross Rivers State was in the NDDC Act, but was removed when Bakassi was excised from Nigeria to join Cameroon and littoral oil dispensation removed wells in the high seas.
“The final blow came with Akwa-Ibom State winning the ownership of the Oil wells on the Land in the Supreme Court. This has resulted in Cross Rivers being a zero contributor to the NDDC.’’
On the corruption, looting and award of spurious contracts at NDDC, Clark said:“We the leaders and stakeholders of NDDC vowed at the time that we will no longer allow the corruption and the mess that characterized the Commission. The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) under my leadership set up a committee to secretly and discreetly investigate the happenings in the NDDC.
“Incidentally, the NDDC now reports to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs instead of the Presidency via the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, but the transfer of the NDDC to the Ministry of Niger Delta has not been legalized.
“The politicians from the Niger Delta including Sen. Adams Oshiomhole, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and Chief Timipre Sylva had appropriated the Board positions amongst themselves but later the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs now Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio intervened and set up an interim committee and another set of illegal sole administrators, who held that position alone and singly operated the budget of the Commission amounting to billions of Naira for a period of about two years.’’
On inequity in the NDDC, Clark pointed out that the NDDC Act lays emphasis on quantity of production of oil from each state.
“It is the same spirit Presidency felt that appointment of staff and infrastructural development by the commission should be determined by the quantity of oil each state produce.
“But today, the struggle between the management and the three minority oil producing states for equal distribution of appointment and infrastructural development, and in fact, there are more staff from the three non-Niger Delta state combined and the infrastructural development in equal basis.
“This is the current production level of NDDC States as shown here below;
State Derivation Paid (₦) % of total Oil Production
For September
Delta 4,707,606,030 32.59%
Akwa Ibom 2,782,505,517 19.26%
Bayelsa 2,757,393,744 19.09%
Rivers 2,723,353,999 18.85%
Edo 622,163,972 4.31%
Ondo 417,160,038 2.89%
Imo 147,324,004 1.02%
Abia 109,627,047 0.76%
Cross River NIL 0%
Source: Office of Accountant General of the Federation.
“At this juncture, it may be necessary to liken this quantity of oil produced to a Ltd. Liability Company which also has majority shareholders and minority shareholders. It is not possible for a minority shareholder of even 5% to be the Chairman or Managing Director of the Ltd Liability Company.
“It will be unfair and inequitable for a state that produces 1.02% to produce Managing Director of the NDDC. I know Nigeria as we are, the tendency will be to develop his own minority oil producing state to develop their area at the expense of the majority of oil producing states which incidentally happen to sum up to over 90% of the oil.
“It is therefore unreasonable, provocative and selfish for Imo State which produces only 1.02% quantum of Oil to demand removal of the Chief Executives of NDDC Board that has been confirmed by the Senate.
“NDDC should remain the six original Niger Delta Coastal States. All other oil producing States should establish a relationship with the oil companies and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, particularly now that oil has been found in other parts of Nigeria including Anambra which is already producing 0.9%, Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kogi, and Lagos States. They cannot therefore be part of NDDC.
“Finally, all the supervising committees of both National Assembly and Board Committees have not been alive to their mandates. Their only interests have been in Projects and Finance. This was the catalyst for the rot in the NDDC. This circle of rottenness must STOP! And I also request Mr. President to publish the report of the forensic audit for which the Federal Government spent so much money, an action which was hailed by Nigerians.’’
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