NDDC: Pondei of power play, plots and uncommon platitudes

It’s a common contention among hunters that when a game runs awkwardly, you shoot awkwardly at it. The goings on in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) reminded me of that wisdom my grandfather shared with me. The acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Professor Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, employed that wisdom at the National Assembly on Monday when he collapsed under the weight of allegations of squandered NDDC funds that were under his care. However, not a few people believed that the acting MD was acting.

Pondei has so much to tell but he is like a gagged praise-singer. He has been sucked into a sordid power play. The Yoruba say dance is embedded in the belly of a cripple. Pondei has become a pun in the puerile power play at the floundering commission. Pondei, Nunieh, Akpabio, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Cairo Ojuogboh, James Manager are among the actors in the messy script. We cannot leave out Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, Nsima Ekere in a long list that has come a long way from the days of Dr Onyema Ugochukwu and Ndutimi Alaibe in the commission.

It’s sad to reiterate that these indeed are uncommon, awkward times in the annals of corruption and scandals in our dear Nigeria. Uncommon things are happening everywhere around us. Uncommon revelations are being made by uncommon Nigerians about their fellow uncommon people in places of power. So much uncommon amounts of money in enormous quantities are being hurled about in our bewildered, cringing faces.

In the bargain was also the revelation by the deposed acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr. Joi Nunieh that she was sexually harassed to which she said she reacted by slapping the culprit, Honourable Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, His Excellency, Obong Godswill Obot Akpabio. That uncommon slapping was a kind of trigger for all the events that have followed since the events of recent days until Pondei made his show.

When Akpabio was the governor of Akwa Ibom State, he prided himself as the man that has brought uncommon transformation to the state. And this earned him the sobriquet, “the Uncommon Governor”. And he deserves it for many reasons, including but not limited to the Ibom Meridien Hotel and the Nest of Champions which raised the tourism strength of his state to another level. But since he changed his political game plan and jumped ship from his traditional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he has been called uncommon names by some people and he has also been wading through uncommon political storms.

Joy Nunieh is one of them. She drew the man also known as the Final Obongowo out and gave a different tinge to the entire palpitating NDDC. The previous notable burn he suffered was his defeat in the last general election where he had sought to go to the Senate to represent his people of Akwa Ibom North East. Considering his clout and how he sounded prior to that election, his loss came to many as a big surprise. His opponents described it as “uncommon defeat.” But that was then. This is now.

Now, he is the Minister of Niger Delta. He is faced with allegations both by the National Assembly and the woman of the NDDC before the current champion. As things stand, the wading through the mix of the legislature, Nunieh, Pondei and Nigerians’ cacophonous opinions of the entire maze, will add to or subtract from this uncommon minister of the NDDC.

The NDDC had long derailed from its core mandate and this isn’t in contention. That the NDDC has been a huge cesspit of corruption is also not the question. These have been copiously established. The worry among concerned Nigerians, including the suffering masses of the Niger Delta now is what the government would make of all these drama and politics.

Ibim Semenitari served as acting managing director of the commission and handed over to Nsima Ekere. She witnessed the friction between the board and management of the NDDC and, having weathered that storm asked that something should be done about the harmful differences between NDDC board and management. From Semenitari’s experience, it is possible to look at the law that established the NDDC with a view to amending it.

There isn’t any doubt that the masses of the Niger Delta know that the NDDC is a failure. There were even opinions against the establishment of the commission, with the argument that Lagos and Abuja were not built by an agency or a commission. The intention of the NDDC was to see an improvement in what the defunct OMPADEC did. But this has turned out to be a worse worm.

The lateral style of the probe by the National Assembly needed to be explained and a respectable senior said: “When the commission was set up about 20 years ago, the ordinary people jubilated, thinking it was for them; that it was to fast track development to create a water-based infrastructure-driven economic region.  The elite group jubilated too, thinking it was for them to grow like rich men in other regions.

“Today, each group is doing a review.  Can we ask why the Federal Government over the years does not care about the looting going on? They have settled the noisy and nosy elites.  Is it because of the disagreement within the chopping class that the ordinary people think the fighting is about them? The House wanted more,  NDDC said no,  the House threatened them,  the Interim Management Committee blew the whistle,  the House thus started a probe of N81 billion instead of over N15 trillion, in which they too are in.

“Have we forgotten that Goodluck Ebele Jonathan set up the Orosanye Panel on NDDC?  Was there a White Paper to this day?  Did Buhari not see it? Some interim MDs did reviews of what has been going on and deliberate breaches of rules and imaginary projects.  Do the National Assembly, FG, Niger Delta ministers not have those briefs?  Has anybody or FG raised a finger?  Dear commoners, rejoice not.  What is happening is a fight among the elites.  They are all guilty. They will settle. It’s not a fight for you oh.”

Is all of this confirming allegations that President Muhammadu Buhari too will not still do anything; that he is absent and aloof in the nebulous presidency? Well, we have the straw of his proposed forensic audit to cling to.

Nigerians lack leadership and it is even more so now, to put it mildly. The country is in a chaos, and the cacophony is unnerving straight and hardworking citizens! Nigeria needs leadership. The platitudes thrown around in the past few months show that we need leadership.

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