NDDC’s Drive To Complete Development Projects

It is often said that success is measured by great
accomplishment. In other words, we are judged by what we are able to
accomplish, and not what we start. The Governing Board of the Niger Delta
Development Commission, NDDC, may have taken these instructive lines to heart
going by its desire to chart a new course different from the turbulent road
taken by their predecessors.

The board may have also ruminated over the immortal words of
a famous American philosopher, William James, who said that “nothing is so
fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” Apparently, the
desire to leave an indelible footprint in the Niger Delta prompted the board to
take up the task of completing all projects currently being executed by the
NDDC. It seems poised to end the era of uncompleted projects littering the
region.

The Managing Director of the Commission, Dr Chris Oboh, is
already driving the process to ensure that the board’s target was met.

“Our budget for 2012 would target completion of existing
projects and they have all been placed on priority list. A lot of projects have
been awarded since the establishment of the NDDC; we intend to focus on the
completion of the projects,” he said.

True to the declaration of the NDDC boss, the board members
have already commenced the audit of all on-going projects across the oil
producing region.

According to Dr. Oboh, the move would enable the commission
to identify the current state of the projects and hasten their completion based
on the resources at its disposal. He described the audit as a demonstration of
the commitment to the completion of projects awarded since the inception of the
NDDC in December, 2000.

So far, the monitoring committees constituted by the board
have inspected projects in six out of the nine NDDC states. In the past three
weeks, the board members have been criss-crossing the Niger Delta States to see
things for themselves.

The monitoring groups made up of representatives of the
various States on the board of the NDDC kicked off this important assignment by
visiting projects in Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. The projects include
roads, bridges, university hostels and shore-protection. Members of the first
monitoring group were led by Barrister Edi Orubo, representing Bayelsa State.
Others were Prof. Ibitamuno Aminigo, representing Rivers State and Engineer
Imaobong Inyang, representing Akwa ibom State.

According to Orubo, their task was to assess what was on the
ground and recommend measures that would facilitate the completion of projects
placed on fast-track by the commission.

The team leader said that the new board of the NDDC was
poised to make appreciable impact on the lives of the people of the Niger Delta
as quickly as possible.

“The project monitoring team will work closely with the
contractors to ensure that they deliver quality infrastructure and on time
too,” he said.

He said that some of the problems that had previously slowed
down the pace of work on NDDC projects had been addressed, noting that “the
process of payment has been streamlined and fine tuned such that contractors
are now paid as soon as they present their Interim Payment Certificates[IPC].”

The team assessed the level of work done at the site of the
29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe road, which the commission is building in partnership
with the Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC]. This road with 10 long
bridges and 99 culverts is described as one of the very challenging projects of
the commission because of its very difficult terrain. For over 35 years when it
was first proposed for construction, successive administrations could not
muster the political will to execute it until SPDC and NDDC decided to take the
bull by the horns.

From Bayelsa State, the board members moved over to Rivers
State where they inspected the hostel projects at the Rivers State University
of Science and Technology [RUST] and the University of Port Harcourt.

Obviously impressed with the level of work at the hostels,
they headed for Buguma. Here, they inspected the Buguma-Edo-Abalama-Abonema
road as well as the Buguma shore-protection and the reclamation of 150 hectares
of land in Ogu-Bolo, all in Rivers State. While they marvelled at the massive land
reclaimed at Ogu-Bolo, they were sorely disappointed at the poor performance of
the contractor at Buguma.

In Akwa Ibom, the board members inspected the hostel at the
University of Uyo permanent site and the one at the University of Uyo Teaching
Hospital. They also looked at some on-going NDDC roads and bridges in the
state. The roads visited were the 30 kilometre Nsasak Junction-Okon Essien Udim
road; the 33.5 kilometre Ikot-Akpan-Udoh road; Iko-Atabrikang-Opolom-Iwuo
Achang road with a 600-metre bridge in Ibeno and the Uquo-Odoro
Nkit-Ntak-Inyang road.

According to Engineer Samuel Inyang, the contractor handling
the Nsasak-Okon Road, NDDC’s new approach to project execution was commendable
as it was result-oriented. “Since we started work on this road, the support of
the NDDC has been unprecedented,” Inyang,
who was a member of the pioneer board, representing the oil companies,
said.

The second monitoring group from the NDDC board took off
from Abia State. The three-man team of board members, led by Barrister
Alloysius Nwagboso, representing Abia State, included Barr.Peter Ezeobi,
representing Imo State and Hon. Dominic Edem, representing Cross River State.

Barr. Nwagboso said that the inspection exercise was aimed
at ensuring that on-going projects of the commission were completed on
schedule. He said it was proof that the interventionist agency was actually
executing development projects in all parts of the Niger Delta.

“If the NDDC is not on ground, building roads and bridges as
well as other key infrastructure, we won’t be on this assignment,” he said.

He charged all NDDC contractors to fulfil their obligations
to the commission by working expeditiously to deliver the various projects on
schedule and in accordance with specified standards. He warned; “Contractors
that are not on site or fail to keep to specifications will have themselves to
blame because the board will not hesitate to take appropriate measures to bring
them to book.”

According to him, “gone are the days when contractors
collect money and abandon projects or go on an endless voyage seeking
variations”, since as he puts it “the Commission is determined to handover
erring contractors to anti-graft agencies”.

The NDDC board member representing Imo State, Barr. Peter
Ezeobi, and his Cross River State counterpart, Hon. Dominic Edem were in
agreement with Nwagboso on the need to keep the commission’s contractors on
their toes to ensure that they live up to expectations. Ezeobi said that the
contractors have no choice but to sit up and play their parts well to enable
the NDDC deliver on its mandate of fast-tracking the development of the Niger
Delta region.

The inspection team was disappointed when they visited the
site of the 25-kilometre Uzoukwu-Owaza Iguruta Road and bridge project. Barr.
Nwagboso lamented that the bridge which would link Abia and Rivers States was
being delayed by the contractor who was not on site to explain why the work on
the bridge appeared abandoned.

It was also a sad story at the site of the 132 KVA
transmission line and sub-station at Ukwa-West local Government Area of Abia
State. The N1.6 billion power line project, meant to serve Abia, Rivers and
Akwa Ibom states, appeared stalled as the premises of the substation was
overgrown with weeds.

“It is sad,” was Nwagboso lamentation.

The legislator representing Ukwa-West in the House of
Representative, Hon. Uzoma Abonta promised to assist the NDDC in holding
contractors accountable.

“It is in our interest to see that projects sited in our
constituencies are not abandoned,” he said.

The NDDC board members were, however, delighted with what
they saw at Nsidung and Idebe communities in new Bakassi/Akpabuyo Local
Government Area of Cross River State. Hon. Akwaedem commended the contractor
for “doing a good job” on the 12-kilometre road with a short spam bridge and
culverts.

The board said it was generally satisfied after the
three-day tour of project sites which covered several roads, bridges,
electricity and university hostel projects being executed in the three States.

Commenting specifically on the hostel projects, Barr.
Nwagboso said the progress of work at the Federal University of Technology,
Owerri[FUTO] and Imo State University was encouraging. He, however, charged the
contractors to keep up the pace to ensure that they were completed on schedule.

The site manager for the FUTO hostel project, Engr. Henry
Onouha, assured the board members that the complex would be ready for
commissioning before the end of the year. The contractors at the other hostels
in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States gave similar assurances. The
176-room proto-type hostels are being built in 18 universities and polytechnics
in the nine Niger Delta states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta,
Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

The project manager of the hostel at the University of
Science and Technology, UST, Port Harcourt, Engineer Eddy George, said that
going by the work programme and the progress of work on site, he was confident
that the hostel would be completed in October, this year.

At the University of Port Harcourt, the engineer supervising
the project, Mr. Nkem Nwaribe, said that work was progressing appreciably such
that a December 2012 deadline would be realistic.

At the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital hostel, the
supervising engineer, Mr. Emeka Christian Oguh, said that 65 per cent of the
work had been completed. He assured members of the NDDC board that the job
would be delivered in November, this year. Similar assurances were given at the
University of Uyo permanent site where the hostel project is also nearing
completion. Mr. Sunday Thomas Akpan, the site engineer, told the NDDC board
members that the job was delayed because of reviews of the design for the
project.

Barrister Orubo said that members of his committee were
impressed with what they saw at the project sites. He said they would continue
to monitor the progress of work on the hostels to ensure that they were not
only delivered on schedule but done according to specified standards. He
appealed to all the contractors to be on their toes because board members would
visit their sites henceforth without prior notice.

Agbu, a seasoned journalist, resides in Port Harcourt.

Ifeatu Agbu