NDDC: Now the forensic audit report is out…

Last week witnessed a major break in the fortunes and politics of the Niger Delta region with the submission of the Forensic Audit Report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). According to media sources, the report was submitted to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio, in his Abuja office by the lead consultant to the exercise. The significance of the forensic audit on NDDC is accentuated by the fact that it was ordered by President Muhamadu Buhari in 2019, when the governors of the nine Niger Delta states met him to register their misgivings on the running of the interventionist agency. The President had placed the exercise as a precondition to whatever reform that would be effected in the agency. The President himself was prompted to order the exercise following widespread public outcry over the deluge of malfeasances in the agency whereby humongous stocks of public largesse deployed there over the years, had failed to make significant developmental impact there, due to unremitting sleaze and malfeasances in the agency.

With the submission of the report to the Minister, at least two factors qualify as most poignant. Firstly is that in a country where the spirit of impunity dominates the public space and public officials are hardly recalled to account for their actions while in office, this audit on a mega agency as the NDDC, remains remarkable as a precedent that should inspire similar exercises in virtually any other public institution where impunity reigns supreme. And hardly can any public institution in this country, fall outside this bracket.

In a similar context, the audit exercise remains even more significant as it constitutes the very justification for the emergence of a new NDDC and by implication a new lease on life for the region. The immediately preceding premises justify the commendation of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio, for a job well done. In its avowed role of a faithful witness to truth, this PENPOINT column had held him accountable justifiably, all through the period of the audit exercise – especially whenever there were instances of miscarriage of due process by him, or any of his proxies. In the same vein, with the dutiful completion of the audit exercise, there is no reason why he should not enjoy some shine for such.

The foregoing notwithstanding, the receipt of the audit report has launched a new dispensation in the circumstances of the NDDC to wit, the follow-through by the government on its recommendations, key among which are two. These constitute the restitution by the horde of unscrupulous individuals who literally stole the humongous stock of public largesse by securing job contracts from the agency and diverting project designated funds elsewhere. Preliminary reports have indicated that as many as 12,500 of such instances with associated theft of trillions of naira, were uncovered by the audit exercise. This figure is apart from other instances of malfeasance that must have been recorded in other aspects of the operations of the NDDC. This sad state of affairs goes to corroborate an earlier prognosis that only 12% impact has so far been achieved by the deployment of humongous public largesse recorded to be in trillions of naira, to the region.

As things stand, it is also not out of place to expect that the forensic audit has unmasked the individuals that are behind these 12,500 instances of brazen criminality, and will furnish the country with their names and faces, as and when due. It is also expected that the culpable names and faces captured by the audit shall include contractors, consultants as well past and present staff of the NDDC. This is undoubtedly the icing on the cake of retributive justice for the region, as far caging the spoilers of NDDC, is concerned. The expected parade of dishonour for these felons remains of utmost public interest as it even constituted the primary justification for the audit exercise itself. While understandably there are pressures on the government to exclude some of the names from the forthcoming blame and shame exercise, the government can only concede to such an outrage to its discredit. Just as well should there be no home grown campaign of clemency by groups and individuals in the region for seemingly ‘anointed’ favoured ‘sons of the soil’, who may be named in the theft of the common patrimony of the region. To allow such is to demonstrate sympathy for the devil.

With respect to the other side of the coin which is the restructuring of the agency, the government should not confine itself to any tendency that excludes the core beneficiaries of the services to be rendered by the NDDC. That is if the repeat of the present state of affairs shall not be repeated. It needs to be recalled that the NDDC was established by the Federal government in the year 2000, to stem then escalating and vigorous clamour for resource control in the Niger Delta region. Meanwhile, its abysmal performance so far has been traced to the deleterious effect of undue interference by the same Federal government using powers and interests outside the zone. This ought not to be and has largely accentuated the gut feeling in some quarters in the zone, that the agency should be viewed and treated with suspicion.

Hence in the new dispensation, all possible and global best fit restructuring options should be laid bare and deliberated upon as elaborately as possible. The conversation of the future of the NDDC should even explore the options of reviewing the very act setting it up. This is not to discount whatever merit is also in the contention of scrapping it altogether, and allocating its resources directly to the designated states. All that the region is saying is that enough is enough, of the present order of developmental incontinence there.

With respect to the other side of the coin which is the restructuring of the agency, the government should not confine itself to any tendency that excludes the core beneficiaries of the services to be rendered by the NDDC.