Our Report Card Can Be Seen, Felt and Touched
By Mike Akpan
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ndutimi Alaibe, managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, recently spoke to Mike Akpan, Newswatch contributing editor, on recent developments in the commission. Among the issues covered during the interview were the allegation that Sam Edem, NDDC chairman, plotted to kill him, their relationship, his worries, youth militancy and the way forward for Niger Delta among others issues. Excerpts:
Newswatch: Tell me what have been the major accomplishments during the one year or so that you have been the chief executive officer of the NDDC.
Alaibe: First of all, the mandate of the NDDC is misunderstood and needs to be explained in view of the fact that there is a whole lot of misrepresentation of our mandate as an interventionist agency. But then, the history is that when the former president came on board, he had more or less beefed up or campaigned that the solution for the Niger Delta problems was the NDDC. So everybody thought that the NDDC was going to come and resolve all the problems. That was not to be given the fact that the NDDC was created to just intervene in solving development issue of the Niger Delta. In view of its wide mandate, and all the misrepresentations or misinterpretations, people had expected several things. In fact, we do say in the office that when a husband has a problem with his wife, he expects the NDDC to come and resolve the problem. All the weight of under-development of the Niger Delta has been laid on the shoulders of the NDDC because of that initial campaign.
When we started, we had commenced with an interim action plan, in which we had to deal with projects that were more or less crisis management projects. Those projects involved those abandoned by the defunct OMPADEC. And then certain projects that communities wanted at that time. That was not sustained because it was an interim measure to address the crisis of the period.
The strategy also involved long-term development of the Niger Delta region. To answer your question, one of the major things I have achieved as far as I am concerned, is the difference which the NDDC made in the development of the Niger Delta economic strategy. There was a slow down in the crafting of that plan until I took over and we gave ourselves the challenge that we must conclude the process of crafting that plan. In a record three-month period, that we tasked ourselves, we concluded the plan and it was launched by the former president in April 2007. That, as far as we are concerned, was a major milestone. We saw the master plan as a transparent deal established in the matter of sustaining development issues in the Niger Delta because, by throwing open to the people of the Niger Delta that these were the challenges of sustaining development and strategies for resolving sustainable development issues of the region. All of us understand that the master plan is a set of policies that will serve as a platform for the development of the Niger Delta region. This major milestone that we achieved during this period, was to ensure that most of the projects that we commenced during the interim action plan like infrastructures were concluded. We had set up a task force to ensure that we concluded those projects such as classroom blocks that were at various stages of completion. And people have always been asking: why is the NDDC implementing from baseline reports? From what we saw, there were no classrooms. We had to conclude most of these projects like shoreline protection, jetties, electrification projects and so on. These were projects that communities were waiting for and potable water. This was one milestone that we had achieved during this period. The next set of things we did to show a difference between what was done before and now is that there is a fundamental departure from the past. It is no longer business as usual. It is a matter of now ensuring due process in the execution of our projects. Hitherto, it was not so. You don’t need to know anybody in the NDDC before you will get contract. Hitherto, due process was thrown to the winds.
Side by side is the fact that we had to reposition the NDDC to be ready for the challenge of implementing the master plan. We are partnering with a world class management consultancy firm to reposition the NDDC for the future. And what does that mean? It involves conducting a diagnostic review of the commission. This will range from processes, systems, the people to the technology and even the soft issues and discipline. It has to do with the efficient and effective implementation of projects and programmes. It is a departure from the previous things that other organizations do. These also involve bench-marking in NDDC with what happens elsewhere at the international level. This benchmarking exercise will help in ensuring that the NDDC is not just seen as a contract can but as a flagship organization that will be the driving force for sustainable development issues in the Niger Delta. If the NDDC is to act as the regional implementation coordinator and implement the master plan at the level of partnership for sustainable development, then it must have the required competence and capacity to do things. That’s why that positioning is very important.
Finally, we are not unaware of things that are happening in the environment, the new challenge against change, the militancy and agitation. Some people have always come up with some strategies on how to resolve that, but for us, we believe that constructive engagement is the positive way of resolving matters of the Niger Delta. These militants are our children and relations. In the non-violence training we are working on, we have been told not to call them militants but agitators, because they are our children and relations. It is the activities of the society that have driven them to that level. And most of them have no alternative sources of income. We are involved in the process to ensure some of them have a means of livehood. There are those who are agitated that we are training militants but we believe that there can be no development in an atmosphere that is violence prone. All over the world, we learn from history, where a non-violence strategy has been applied to resolve agitations like this. I will give you an example. Mahatma Ghandi did it in India and, of course, the non-violence strategy by Martin Luther King. The non-violence strategy is one that we promote as a means of demobilizing the militants and we believe that agitation can be done without carrying guns. The non-violence programme is not just for militants, but for non-militants as well.
There are youth leaders of the Niger Delta who have been trained in the non-violence programme and are now preachers of non-violence in their communities. The objective is to create a non-violent society. These are milestones in the NDDC as far as we are concerned. Very recently, we graduated over 7,000 youths in various skills – like welding and fabrication and so on. The difference between the participants that graduated from those trainings and the new ones that are going to the non-violence programme is that those participants didn’t go through any re-orientation or reconcientization programme.
Those who are violent, still carry on violence, and that’s why some of them harass their trainers during the training process. The ones that passed through non-violence trainings, go through skill acquisition programmes under very strict supervision.
Newswatch: What have been the challenges and obstacles to the commission over the years since you have been with it since its inception?
Alaibe: Well, the challenges are not different from the challenges of the Niger Delta. You cannot talk about the challenges of the commission in isolation of the general challenges of the Niger Delta which, of course, are the environmental challenges, the economic challenges, and the socio-political challenges. Then reducing that to the level of the commission, the most serious challenges today are economic and socio-political. These have to do with the long years of neglect and the attitude of our people.
Today, unfortunately, it appears the Niger Delta people are notable for petition-writing. An average Ijaw man is an agitator to the point where there is cynicism in terms of his perception of the activities of government and even activities of his leader. This cynicism has gradually crept into our daily lives. I give you an example in terms of the NDDC projects. Many people drive on NDDC roads and yet say it has done nothing. It’s a challenge. The fact is that people spend time to create an industry - petition and rumour-mongering - that is close to the level of the oil industry. The industry has grown to a level that even the intelligentsia have joined. It is something that has challenged us that people will just sit down and create. Recently, we had a situation where people fund an organisation and called themselves Niger Delta Mothers, and said their objective is to probe the NDDC. Now who says NDDC is afraid of being probed? This is the most monitored organisation in Nigeria. NDDC is monitored by the special presidential monitoring committee; NDDC is supervised by the office of the SGF, at the National Assembly Level, NDDC has committees that have oversight functions. There is the house committee on Niger Delta, the House Committee on public accounts, the senate committee on Niger Delta and public accounts. NDDC is audited by the office of the auditor-general, then there are external auditors, even the youths of the Niger Delta, the civil societies, and international NGOs are all monitoring the activities of the Niger Delta. People just create political problems and cynicism, just to distract us, but we cannot be intimidated by some of these people and organisations. We remain focused and shall continue to pursue our activities in line with the mandate of Mr. President.
Newswatch: You’ve talked about how the commission has been criticised over alleged non-performance. Now, let me know what the commission has done in specific sectors
Alaibe: I can tell you that we have 2,416 projects executed by the NDDC. It’s unprecedented, I don’t know of any other organization that has that kind of report card. These include projects on shoreline protection, road projects, we have road projects of over 4000 kilometres. NDDC has built over 60 bridges. So, it is not a question of not getting the facts of the projects that we execute. Water projects, electrification project, jetties, school buildings and hospital projects. Talking about human capacity development projects, we have trained over 4000 people in Sungai farms. We have treated over a million people in our free health scheme and is continuing in partnership with an NGO called Pro Health.
The truth is that we are not in competition with any other tier of government in the matter of sustainable development in the region, yet with the lean resources that we have, there’s no local government area in the Niger Delta that has not felt the NDDC impact. So, you must be able to juxtapose our activities and programmes with the available resources and benchmark them with something.
Another example, of our major achievement is that we have distributed over a thousand transformers to communities. So when people make such claims, it doesn’t really bother us because our projects are mainly in communities where even the presence of government had not been felt before. We have been able to measure our performance on the basis of the impact the projects have on the lives of the communities we are serving. So, it is a report card that can be seen, touched and felt.
Newswatch: Now, tell me about this debt that is reportedly owed the NDDC by the oil companies and the federal government. How much is it?
Alaibe: The oil companies, especially the major oil companies, have done very well. Without them, and before the advent of the government of President Yar’Adua, the NDDC would have been extinct more or less. Beyond the fact that there are gaps in some of the cases, the gaps that we noticed are gaps that have to do with the interpretation of the laws governing the commission. These gaps, we believe, are being addressed at the various levels. What this president has been preaching is about going forward, and implementing the NDDC Act to the letter. That’s what the president has said and that’s what we will do.
Newswatch: What do you mean by gaps?
Alaibe: The gaps are the funding gaps
Newswatch: How much is that?
Alaibe: For the years up to the end of 2006, we had a gap of over N240 billion and this gap had existed because of the fact that 15 percent of the statutory allocation due to the nine states which is the federal government contribution to the NDDC has not been implemented by the previous government.
Newswatch: Now let’s look at the summit that the federal government wanted to hold.
Alaibe: No comment
Newswatch: Why can’t you comment?
Alaibe: I think that has been overtaken by events and we are now at the stage of dialogue. I don’t think there should be an end to talking, whether you call it summit, or dialogue or seminar or workshop, or conference, there cannot be an end to jaw-jaw. That is my position. But the politics of semantics, is what I don’t want to be dragged into.
Newswatch: How do you think the problems of the Niger Delta, including that of militancy, can be resolved?
Alaibe: The Niger Delta Regional Master Plan is the strategy for the resolution of the Niger Delta problem. As you know, since the days of the Willinks Commission, the Niger Delta had been specifically identified as a special area. That special area status has so far not been recognized by successive governments. That’s why we find ourselves where we are. So, if we must resolve that problem, we must resolve it constructively. That is the basis of the master plan. The strategies and policies that are embedded in that plan should form that framework. Unless we do not have the political will, otherwise implementing the master plan will substantially resolve the problems of the Niger Delta. The master plan provides for ways of dealing with conflict issues, and how to set up peace and conflict resolution committees. I believe that this government has that political will. It just needs to be given some time to commence the implementation of the plan. As for the youth issues, it will not take a long time to resolve. All the stakeholders must be involved. All stakeholders must be committed to it. We must have a platform to sit down to collaborate and fashion out solutions. It’s about reorientation, of rehabilitation and ultimately economic empowerment and disarmament. For now, there is no such programme. I think that is the point the federal government is trying to reach. Once we get to that point, the problem will be solved.
Newswatch: There is a story in the media about you and the chairman of the NDDC Ambassador Sam Edem. There is an allegation that he went to a native doctor to kill you and the governor of Akwa Ibom State. What is the problem between you and the chairman?
Alaibe: As far as I know, I don’t have any problem with the chairman. We have related very well. He’s the chairman of NDDC and I am the managing director. I do hear of such stories here and there but I don’t take them serious because I believe that the only man that can take life is the man who gives life. I don’t believe in those stories. I don’t have any problem with the chairman.
Newswatch: The information I have is that he feels that you were blocking him. How were you blocking him?
Alaibe: Talking about blocking, as far as I know, we relate well. We do not have any fundamental issues that will necessitate him wanting to kill me.
Newswatch: So, were you surprised when the story was disclosed in the public?
Alaibe: I didn’t believe it,
Newswatch: Do you believe it now?
Alaibe: I still do not believe it.
Newswatch: Have you spoken to him since then?
Alaibe: Yes, we have always related well. Of course, we talk on a constant basis. We talk even about the stories and laughed over them.
Newswatch: What did you say to him and what did he say to you?
Alaibe: That not everything in the media is true.
Newswatch: You haven’t said anything, but he has called a press conference to deny it.
Alaibe: I see the fact that he denied it on the pages of newspapers as a noble thing to do and I also believe that it is not true. I believe it is one of the socio-political challenges of the Niger Delta.
Newswatch: If it’s not true, how can it be one of the socio-political challenges of the Niger Delta?
Alaibe: Because the Niger Delta is full of rumour mongers.
Newswatch: Have the police spoken to you about it?
Alaibe: I don’t have any problems with the police.
Newswatch: Have you spoken to the police about it?
Alaibe: No.
Newswatch: You are not curious to know whether or not it’s true that somebody wants to kill you?
Alaibe: It’s not important to me because man is not God.
Newswatch: When the Senate committee on Niger Delta Development came to Rivers State, the chairman, James Manager, said at this level of funding, it would take the NDDC more than 200 years to implement the Regional Master Plan. What, in your opinion, is the level of funding that is needed for the commission to implement its 15- year development plan?
Alaibe: First of all, let me correct an impression. The Niger Delta regional master plan is not designed for implementation by the NDDC alone. All service providers are expected to collaborate and share responsibilities towards the realisation of the plan. When we began the design, we did sectoral analysis of what it would involve, about $50 billion dollars at that time, but now it’s twice the amount ($100 billion), for any meaningful development to happen if not more. We are talking about major infrastructural development to happen like the Lagos – Calabar coastal road. It’s a project that we expect to open up the coastal areas of the Niger Delta to other parts of Nigeria and the world. If you look at the map, you will find that the coastal area is detached from other parts of the country. That has thrown up a lot of security challenges and even economic challenges to the Niger Delta and Nigeria. So, in terms of implementation of the plan, it is not only an NDDC specific plan but a plan designed for implementation by all development partners – federal, state and local government, the NDDC, the private sector, the oil companies operating in the area, the civil societies. The plan posits that there should be a platform for collaboration and all stakeholders to sit together, share responsibilities on agreed goals for sustainable development of the Niger Delta. The debut year of that platform is 2008 when the president directed that all service providers should sit down and deliberate on projects. Before now, there was no such platform, we always had a situation where a state government will be implementing a project in a particular community, the NDDC may be replicating the same project leading to a waste of resources because nobody is cross-checking what the other is doing. It was a waste of resources.
Newswatch: Is there a co-ordinating body now?
Alaibe: There’s a co-ordinating platform and the NDDC is the regional coordinator for that and that platform includes the National Panning Commission. The plan is the collective responsibility of all service providers, under a collaborative platform for sharing responsibilities between time lines and so on. That’s what it’s all about.
Newswatch: There had been some controversy as to what the NDDC has received in the past seven years. What is the actual amount?
Alaibe: There’s no controversy about that.
Newswatch: What has the NDDC received over the years
Alaibe: Specifically, the federal government, as at 31 December 2007, had contributed N110 billion (one hundred and ten billion Naira). This year, the federal government has contributed N20 billion to the Niger Delta Development Commission. By the end of this year, it would have contributed N40 billion. In other words, by the end of the year 2008, the federal government would have contributed more than N160 billion to the NDDC. As to the oil companies, they have done well. Their contributions, as at the end of 2007, had been N200 billion (two hundred billion). What we are looking at is an NDDC that receives a minimum of N360 billion in total terms. What does that translate to? The people who are saying three trillion, Naira, I don’t think they understand mathematics; N360 billion for seven and half years, divided by nine states in practical terms, translates to about to N4.5 billion per state per year, in case there were no over heads.
Newswatch: What’s your relationship with state governors of the Niger Delta as well as the vice- president?
Alaibe: We are coordinating well at the regional level. We have a collaborative relationship as far as the issue of sustainable development is concerned. You will recall that, at some point, we presented the masterplan to all the state governors at the executive councils. In terms of relationship, we have a perfect relationship.
With the vice-president, as a commission, we recognize that he is the highest Niger Deltan in government and we work with him. Our reporting lines are different. I report to the SGF but we relate with him on Niger Delta issues and tap from his experience.
Newswatch: The Niger Delta Commission is supposed to be the co-ordinator of The master plan that is supposed to have started by 2006. What are the projects involved in this phase?
Alaibe: 2008 phase is the debut year for the master plan, not 2006, but it was launched in 2007. The first phase of the master plan involves the creation of an enabling environment. This is the foundation phase. It involves the implementation of projects and programmes that dovetailed into the maintenance and creation of an enabling environment; programmes and projects that we want to see happen - social services that will ensure things happening in our rural communities like water, electricity, road and shelter.
Agricultural productivity has its roots and strategies in the plan. We must take off from the total dependence on oil production and expand the economy of the Niger Delta. How do you do this? By going back to an agriculture-driven economy and what our forefathers depended on before the discovery of oil-agriculture, fishery, to empower the agricultural industry through the provision of improved seedlings to farmers. We can produce all the rice that we need in the whole of West Africa. In Akwa Ibom State, for example, we have massive rice farms. So also in Bayelsa and Rivers states. These are farms that can create thousands of employments, and can also feed the whole of West Africa. What about cassava production? And you know that from cassava, you can produce ethanol that can lead to the production of bio-fuel; what about sugar cane that can lead to the production of bio-fuel? These are the projections.
Newswatch: In the master plan, there’s a sub section on conflict resolution. I would want to find out, how far the commission has gone in conflict resolution?
Alaibe: Conflict resolution and conflict management are matters well handled by the master plan. They have to do with resolving or reducing conflicts. The strategies are very clear and are available to stakeholders to utilise. It talks about policy issues and the approach to crisis management and resolution. It also talks about how to form conflict management committees at various levels. It also provides for an internal ombudsman to come in for the purpose of moderating in a conflict. It also talks about how to use conflict personnel for crisis management. The approach should be to continuously educate our youths and agitators, that the best approach is non-violence. In societies where injustice is perceived, we do not advice that the struggle should be abandoned, but then you must approach such agitation in a non-violent way. That’s what we preach.
Newswatch: How far has the conflict affected the operation of the commission?
Alaibe: It’s all about collaboration. The commission understands its work. You see, the strategy to resolve the Niger Delta problem is for us to work in unity. We work in the communities and the communities are encouraged to set up community development groups that work with the contractors who implement projects in the communities. So, it’s only when you don’t have such approach that there will be problems. The communities are saying, let us work together, don’t work for us, work with us.
So, those companies who rely on military people, for protection have problems because the strategy has never proved successful and will never prove successful.
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