Brambaifa: Setting NDDC on the right track

The federal government set up the NDDC as an interventionist agency nineteen years ago, to facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta region.

Since then, the government has appointed several prominent indigenes of the region to execute the commission’s core mandate for the people. Projects worth billions of naira have been embarked upon by these leaders, with some completed and several others abandoned. In all these, the region is still far from the vision of the government, especially the one current administration of President Buhari envisioned for it.

Away from the euphoria which Prof. Brambaifa’s appointment has generated, the reality on the ground is that he must quickly settle down for business and do better than all his predecessors, because time is not on his side. It is only his outstanding performance that can determine how long the interim status of his appointment will be.

Among other things, the NDDC was established to formulate policies and guidelines for the development of the region; plan and implement, in accordance with set rules and regulations, of projects and programmes for sustainable development of the Niger Delta, in the field of transportation such as roads, jetties and waterways, health, employment, industrialisation, agriculture and fisheries, housing and urban development, water supply, electricity and telecommunications.

Others are to prepare master plans and schemes to promote the physical development of the Niger Delta region and the estimation of the member states of the commission; implement all the measures approved for the development of the region by the federal government and the states of the commission, and identify factors inhibiting the development of the area. It is also to assist the member states in the formulation and implementation of policies to ensure sound and efficient management of the resources of the Niger Delta region.

Whether these objectives have been realised in the past 19 years is left for posterity and the people of the region to judge.

Prof.Brambaifacameintooffice with a “New Order” soon after the immediate past managing director of the NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere, vigorously pursued his 4-R Initiative of “restructuring the balance sheet, reforming the governance protocols, restoring the commission’s core mandate and reaffirming its commitment to doing what is right and proper.”

Of a truth, the task of developing the Niger Delta is too important to be toyed with and too compelling for anyone to waste time and resources on.

The region has suffered enough deprivation and President Buhari recognises this, hence his rejig of the management team which brought into office Prof.

Brambaifa, alongside the acting executive director, finaance and administration, Mr. Chris Amadi and the acting executive director (Projects), Dr. Samuel Adjogbe.

Now that Buhari has changed the narrative and the people of the region have agreed that the president means well for them, Brambaifa and his team cannot afford to fail.

Brambaifa comes into the NDDC with over four decades of an enviable career in the ivory tower and other well-known organisations. His new job is well cut out for him, to bring genuine development and hope to the Niger Delta people, as well as restore their confidence and faith in the government.

A professor of pharmacology, Brambaifa on assumption of duty at the NDDC’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, assured the management and staff that he would drive a new and sustainable vision for the region.

The “New Deal” in NDDC, according to him, provides the management with the opportunity to do things differently for the development and actualisation of the needs of the people.

Being a “child of the creeks” from Agbere community in Sagbama local government area of Bayelsa State, Brambaifa has always shown deep concern about the plight of the people of the region.

As a leader that accords the traditional institution its due, the NDDC chief pledged that the commission would work with traditional rulers for the sustainable development of the region given the monarchs’ crucial role in promoting peace as well as providing a platform for dialogue.

Also, Brambaifa is reinventing the Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) Forum to serve as a clearing house for the NDDC’s projects. The PSD is a forum that brings all the stakeholders under one umbrella to facilitate the process of harmonising development projects as contained in the Niger Delta Regional Development Master plan.

During the recent visit of a delegation of the European Union (EU) to the NDDC, Brambaifa said that the commission would strengthen its collaboration with the EU through the Niger Delta Support Programme (NDSP) to resuscitate abandoned water infrastructure across the nine Niger Delta states.

This is a welcome development, but it must be extended to other abandoned projects that litter the memberstates. Brambaifa should emulate President Buhari by completing abandoned and ongoing projects before embarking on new ones.

The minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, during a working visit to the commission as the supervisory ministry, had challenged the management team to meet the expectations of the Buhari-led administration by fastening its belt.

Usani said that the current NDDC management, being an interim one, was expected to do more for the people of the Niger Delta than a regular board.

He said: We expect every functionary and staff of the commission to appreciate this fact and put up the very best efforts in the performance of their duties.

“It may be too early to assess the performance of the new management team. But it is essential for us to know that the task for the management is a greater burden than it would have been if it has a longer time to stay,” the minister stated.

Given Brambaifa’s track records and experience in the academics and as a former representative of Bayelsa State in the immediate past board of the NDDC, the leadership said that he had shown capacity and competence within the short period he had led the board.

In his early life, Brambaifa dazzled in far away Free University, Berlin, in the old West Germany where he graduated with a degree Vor-diplom Biochemie (Biochemistry) in 1974

Thereafter, he earned the first of many higher degrees Diplom Biochemie in Oral Examination in Biochemistry, Clinical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Pharmacy graduating with a distinction from the same university.

By 1982 he had earned his Doktor der Naturwisseshaften (Dr.rer.nat) in Oral Examination in Pharmacology, Biochemistry, Clinical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, progressing in the process to Research Assistant in Research Laboratories of Scharing, Research Fellow in Scharing Central Research both in Berlin and a post-doctoral research fellow at UCLAF in the Loire Valley, France.

Brambaifa has worked as team leader in Scharing Central Research Department of Neuroendocrinology and Neuropscychopharmacology (1984-1993) and a professor of Biochemical Pharmacology (1996-date)

Brambaifa served as dean, Students Affairs 1992-1996 as well as pioneer dean, Faculty of Basic Medical College of Health Sciences at the University of Port Harcourt. He also served as the pioneer provost, College of Health Sciences, Niger Delta University, Amassoma in Bayelsa State.

With a rich academic background, international exposure and socio-political involvement in the affairs of the region and the nation at large, there is a groundswell of opinion that Brambaifa transits as the substantial managing director of the commission. Only time will tell.

Mr. Barle wrote this piece from Yenegoa, Bayelsa State.