How Politicians Destroyed NDDC -Ex-Director

A former Director with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sir Chris Ajoku, has attributed the rot in the interventionist agency to the penchant of  politicians to appropriate the funds of the commission to sponsor their political ambitions.
The former director in the Agric and Business Development Directorate of the  NDDC, who spoke with The Tide on the institutional crisis rocking the agency, said the NDDC’s original mandate and objective of developing the Niger Delta region had been compromised and overtaken by partisan interests, making the commission a “ conduit pipe and platform for massive rigging to fund selfish political ambitions. “
He pointed out that from the inception of the NDDC in the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, successive managements had lost touch with development of the Niger Delta but gambled with the destiny of the  Niger Delta people through the misappropriation of the development funds for Niger Delta communities.
He said, “ the rot in the NDDC started with the first board, which first of all disengaged all the experienced directors and key staff of the agency and replaced them with their cronies to satisfy their ulterior motives of looting the NDDC funds to sponsor their political ambitions. “Sir Ajoku also frowned at what he described as the “compromise and complicity” of supervising bodies over the agency.
He said,” the different layers of supervising bodies or oversight personnel, agencies and politicians from States to the National Assembly all descended on the NDDC, cornering most of the projects which were in most cases not executed,but payments made often times, with built in profits for them in the NDDC budget before passage “
According to the ex Director, another major setback in the agency was the undue influence of powerful political patrons over the management of the the agency who were mostly positioned to do the biddings of their masters at the expense of the development of the Niger Delta.
He explained that such major political actors influenced the passage of the NDDC budgets by inflating contracts which are layer sold out at the rate of 10% contract value, and having the contracts paid of front to collect the over blotted sums.
Sir, Ajoku who commended the Federal Government over the forensic audit of the NDDC decried the abuse of tenders rules in the award of NDDC contracts which results in financial recklessness and abandoning of projects in the Niger Delta region.
He recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan directed that new contracts should not be awarded in the Commission until old ones are completed but a new term “ Emergency Projects” was introduced in the NDDC. “
The former NDDC Director who faulted the concept of Interim Management in the NDDC called for a review of the NDDC act to address the development challenges in the Niger Delta by making the people to play active economic roles in the development of the region