By David Ekuetafia, Esq.
The recent decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to order a forensic audit of the operations and activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC since inception in December 2001, has thrown up several issues including those concerning compliance with extant statutory internal mechanisms for ensuring effective management and control for better performance of the Commission.
In the ongoing debates on the pros and cons for the presidential decision, both the presidency and the nine (9) governors of the member States of the Commission are expressing their displeasure over the performance of the various Boards without reference to their own statutory responsibilities as clearly stated in the NDDC Act 2000 as amended which are geared towards the guarantee of good performance and effective management of the Commission. The blame is being heaped on the past Boards of the Commission. I will attempt to bring to the attention of the general public and particularly the presidency as well as the governments of the Niger Delta states some crucial provisions of the law that are designed for the success of every Board of the Commission.
In the second place, the NDDC Act 2000 as amended in its section 21, establishes the Presidential Monitoring Committee (PMC) which composition is exclusively at the discretion of by Mr President himself. Under sub-section (2)(a) of this section, the PMC has enormous powers “to monitor the funds and projects” and while sub-section (2)(b) grants authority to it “to have access to the books of account and other records of the Commission …” at any time. This means that if the said Presidential Monitoring Committees constituted along with the former Boards had closely worked together, the much needed impacts of the NDDC would have been better felt and appreciated in the Niger Delta zone. The combined effects of both sections of the law are meant to save the Federal Government and indeed the Commission of the time and huge financial resources set to be deployed in the engagement of either local or foreign financial experts to carry out the forensic audit or any other investigation.
In the first place,section 11(1)(a) of the NDDC Act 2000 as amended establishes “the Niger Delta Development Advisory Committee” (NDDAC)which is composed of the 9 Niger Delta governors and two other persons (to be nominated by Mr President) as members. This Committee is charged with the roles of“…advising the Board…” and “…monitoring the activities of the Commission”.If each previous Niger Delta Development Advisory Committee had lived up to its statutory responsibilities by effectively discharging their roles with the Boards sort to be probed, it is germane that the public out cry for the ineffective performance of the Commission would not have arisen.
In the third place, the enabling Act of the Commission under section 23 also gives exclusive powers to Mr President and declares that “…the President …give to the Commission directives of a general nature or relating generally to matters of policy with regard to the performance of the Commission of its functions and it shall be the duty of the Commission to comply with the directives”. Under this provision of the law, Mr President possesses unfettered powers to ensure that each Board of the Commission is properly put under check and balance in the discharge of the functions of its office by virtue of the authority given to the President as the only person who has the power to hire and fire though, within the confines of the Act.
Fourthly, under section7(3) of the Act, it is copiously stated that“The Commission shall be subject to the direction, control or supervision in the performance of its functions under this Act by the President, Commander -in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” and not under the control and authority of any other person or institution whatsoever except the requirements for screening and confirmation of the members of the Board by the National Assembly.
Apart from the safeguards in the NDDC law which had not been put to the desired use as intended by the framers of the Act, another major reason for the failure of the past Boards can be attributed to the undue interference with the activities of the Commission by the political class. It had always put undue pressures on members of the Boards for all manners of patronage in favour of their relatives and cronies whether or not they possess the required competence for the execution of the projects and services for which they are recommended to be patronized.
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Also, the Act that set up the Commission created several Directorate sunder section 9 including the“Directorate of Projects Monitoring and Supervision” in paragraph (k). This directorate is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the entire network of the activities of the Commission and report. It’s run and managed by professionals and experts with the requisite experience and expertise needed to effectively discharge the duties of their office. However, it also appears that the man powering this department has long compromised their positions to the extent that they even raised interim payment certificates, IPC for jobs that were not completed or done at all. I think this is what is responsible for the plethora of abandoned NDDC projects littering every part of the region which now forms the basis of the public out cry on the failure or non performance of the Commission. An interim payment certificate is an evidence or instrument of the extent of the job done upon which the paying authority bases its judgment to make payments.
It is therefore important to note that if the Federal Government had inthepast properly harnessed allthe internal control mechanisms as highlighted above,there would have been no reason for the public condemnation of the record of stewardship of the Commission since Thursday, 17th October, 2019 when the news broke that the Presidency has rather opted to conduct a forensic audit on the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC from its inception in December 2001 till 2019 instead of concluding the process of inaugurating the new Board which membership was announced in August 2019.
My arguments herein does not derogate from the fact that the Federal Government has power to engage individuals and organizations to carry out a forensic audit and investigation into any of its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the purposes of accountability and transparency most especially at this crucial period when corruptionneeds to be fought with every available weapon. Be that as it may, it must be stated unequivocally that there seems to be too much ado about nothing becausethis decision was not takenby the presidency itself but it wasseemly ignited by some interest groups in the region who may be unhappy with the process of selecting the membership of theBoard soon to be inaugurated by the President.
The identified foregoing provisions in the enabling Act, are self and internal mechanisms created by the law to keep activities of the Commission under checkand also to curb the excesses of every Board which the presidency had not actually and adequately taken advantage of since the commencement of the activities of the Commission.
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I alsowish to addthat the failure or otherwise of any previous Board of NDDC was not possible without the connivance or complicity of the Commission‘s bureaucracy. In this regard, it will be most unwise to allow the interim management of the Commission to supervise the proposed audit of the past Boards. It is therefore advisable for the presidency, in order to obtain maximum results of the exercise,tofirst and foremost inaugurate the next board. This is because it will play a pivotal role which will help to sanitize theaudit exercise because members will work impartially and transparently with the team of auditors as they would have nothing to hide.
Therefore, flowing from the content of this article and what other stakeholders have so far canvassed in the media, and for the purpose of emphasis, I humbly call on His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari to first of all complete the process of inauguration of the Dr Pius Odubu led Board which has Chief Bernard Okumagba as managing director with Mr Maxwell Okoh as the executive director of finance and administration and Engr Otobong Ndem as the executive director of projects amongst other members.
Ekuetafia, a Constitutional Lawyer and Social Commentator, writes from Delta State.
