Timi Alaibe’s Fears
By Mike Akpan
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ndutimi Alaibe, managing director of the NDDC, says the deliberate misrepresentation of the commission’s mandate and the cynical attitude of Niger Deltans are his major worries and not the threat to his life
Ndutimi Alaibe, managing director and chief executive officer of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, can’t believe that Sam Edem, the suspended chairman of the commission, wanted to kill him. "As far as I am concerned, we relate well and we do not have any fundamental disagreement that would necessitate his contemplating or wanting to kill me. I don’t believe it," he told Newswatch in Abuja.
Alaibe was reacting to a revelation contained in a statement made to the police by Perekabowei Ogah, a native doctor, at Zone 5 Police headquarters, Benin, Edo State. In the statement, Ogah, also known as Matthew Sonoma, said Edem hired him to carry out three important assignments. One of the assignments was that he (Ogah) should use supernatural powers to work on Godswill Akpabio, governor of Akwa Ibom State, so that he would always do his (Edem’s) bidding, including awarding juicy contracts to him.
The second assignment, according to Sonoma, was that he should either eliminate Alaibe or inflict him with a stroke. Ogah revealed that Edem wanted him to eliminate or incapacitate Alaibe because he was blocking him and was not allowing him a free rein as chairman of NDDC.
As for the third assignment, Ogah said, the chairman also wanted him to use his juju to work on Goodluck Johanthan, Vice-President, to always obey and support him. "if there is any plan to remove him from office." Surprisingly, these revelations did not upset Alaibe. This is what he said during an encounter with Newswatch.
Newswatch: There have been allegations that the chairman of the NDDC, Ambassador Sam Edem, went to a native doctor to kill you and the Akwa Ibom State governor. What is the problem between you and the chairman?
Alaibe: To the best of my knowledge, I don’t have any problem with the NDDC Chairman. We relate well. He is the chairman and I am the managing director and chief executive officer. I do hear of such stories everyday but I don’t take them seriously because I believe that the man that can take life is the man who can give life. So, I don’t believe in those stories.
Newswatch: Do you have any problem with him?
Alaibe: No.
Newswatch: The information I have is that he feels you are obstructing him. How are you obstructing him?
Alaibe: As far as I am concerned, we relate well and we do not have any fundamental disagreement on issues that would 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 don’t believe it.
Newswatch: Have you related to him since then?
Alaibe: Of course, we talk on a constant basis, we talk even about that and we laughed over it.
Newswatch: What did you say to him and what did he say to you?
Alaibe: That not everything written in the media is true.
Newswatch: Everything written?
Alaibe: Yes
Newswatch: Which one? You haven’t said anything but he has called a press conference to deny it. But the story still persists.
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 that it is one of the socio-political challenges of the Niger Delta.
Newswatch: If it is 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: No. I don’t have any business with the police on that matter.
Newswatch: Have you spoken to the police about it?
Alaibe: No.
Newswatch: You are not curious to know whether it is true or not that somebody wants to kill you?
Alaibe: It is not important to me because man is not God.
Even though Alaibe says he does not care whether somebody wants to kill him or not, the federal government is worried by the possible negative impact of such a development on the commission in particular and the country in general. For this reason, Edem was suspended as NDDC chairman on August 8, on the order of the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Babagana Kinigibe, secretary to the government of the federation, said in an official statement August 8, that Edem’s suspension followed allegations levelled against him. The statement added that Bassey Dan–Abia, Akwa Ibom State representative on the NDDC board, should act as chairman pending the outcome of investigations into the allegations levelled against Edem.
That was not all. On that same day, Edem was picked up by the police on allegations of conspiracy to murder Alaibe and spiritually influence Jonathan and Akpabio to take decisions in his favour. A police statement later explained that the arrest was based on an allegation that Edem had already paid N510 million out of the N800 million contract sum to a sorcerer.
The threat to his life is not what really worries Alaibe. What upsets him is how individuals and groups of individuals deliberately misinterpret and misrepresent the mandate of the commission. The reason for such a deliberate act is not hard to explain. When former president Olusegun Obasanjo went to the Niger Delta area during the 1999 presidential election campaign, he gave the people the impression that the NDDC which he would set up if he became the president, would solve the problems of underdevelopment in the region. So when the commission was set up in 2000, everybody thought the NDDC was the magic wand for the problems of the region which had accumulated over the years.
As Alaibe put it: "But that was not to be, given the fact that the NDDC was created to just intervene in solving development issues of the Niger Delta. In view of its wide mandate and its misinterpretation or misrepresentation, 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 it. All the weight of underdevelopment in the region has been laid on the shoulder of the NDDC because of this initial campaign."
Just recently, a group by the name Patriotic Niger Delta Mothers, PNDM, whose office address was given as 225 Sapele Road, Warri, placed series of advertisements in several national dailies accusing the commission of failing to live up to its mandate. The group’s submission was that since the NDDC had failed in its mandate of fast-tracking development in the Niger Delta in spite of the N3.8 trillion it had received in the last six years, it should be scrapped.
Moreover, the PNDM wanted the National Assembly to probe the commission in order to expose how the huge sum it got was mismanaged. To press home a point, the PNDM said its members would strip naked on the streets of Port Harcourt and Abuja if the federal government failed to respond to its request within 30 days.
But has the commission anything to show to justify its continued existence as an interventionist agency? Yes, said Alaibe. "When we started, we had commenced with an interim action plan in which we had to deal with projects that were more or less like crisis management projects. These projects involved those that were abandoned by the OMPADEC (Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission) and then certain projects that the communities wanted at that time. That was not sustained because it was an interim strategy to address the crisis of the period. The strategy also involved a long-term development of the Niger Delta region."
According to records made available to Newswatch, the commission had embarked on a total of 2,416 projects in the past seven years. The projects cover such areas as classroom blocks, hospitals, health centres, hostels, water, roads, bridges, flood and erosion control. Others are land reclamation, shoreline protection, construction of jetties, large scale farming, skill acquisition, and economic empowerment. This year, a total of 334 completed projects have been commissioned.
Of this number, 38 are located in Abia, 47 in Akwa Ibom, 31 in Bayelsa, two in Cross River, 57 in Delta, 62 in Edo, 33 in Imo, 44 in Ondo and 20 in Rivers State. There is something striking about these projects. Take the water projects for instance. Most of them are solar-powered which is an innovation. The commission opted for this innovation following problems associated with generator-powered scheme where beneficiaries could not afford the cost of fuel and the maintenance of the generators after the initial supply of fuel ran out.
The Biseni Water Scheme located in Biseni, a coastal town in Bayelsa State, is also worthy of note. The scheme has a surface water treatment facility. The 27,000 gallon capacity water scheme has two 3 horse power suction pumps with screens, which are mounted on floaters. The project, which is the first of its kind in the Niger Delta, also has three trains each consisting of aeration units, nine units of non-chemical media, nine micro filters and one UV system.
Other ancillary facilities attached to the scheme are a six-room operation building, steel access-step-away and platform to containers drainage, a shoreline protection and a pressed steel tank. The joy of the Biseni community knew no bounds when the scheme was commissioned early this year.
Like the people of Biseni, Betta Oru, a seamstress and Daniel Okoli, a miller, both living in Okobo Community are also very happy that the NDDC had come to their aid by constructing the Owerewere-Ochigba road to link their community with Abua Central local government area in Rivers State. Exclaimed an elated Oru: "Before now, motorists and cyclists refused to ply this road because of the possibility of being stuck in the mud which had reached knee-high. Now the NDDC has come to our aid and we are enjoying it."
Okoli agrees. "We are happy that the NDDC has come to build this road for us. We can now go to Abua Central with ease. During the rainy season, it was hell travelling on this road because it was muddy. No motorist was prepared to take the risk to ply this road no matter how much passengers agreed to pay. The story is different today," he declared.
It is also a different story in the Etche and Omuma local government areas in Rivers State. The construction of Okehi-Eberi-Omuma road and bridge is a dream come true for the people. According to Sebastine Nwankwo, a traditional chief in Umuola–Obibi town in Rivers State, "This river has separated Etche and Omuma which are two sister local government areas in Rivers State. If you want to reach Etche from Omuma, you either have to cross the river by canoe which many fear to do or take a very long route, which passes through Aba in Abia State to Port Harcourt before getting to Etche. Sometimes the journey will take two or three hours. But with the construction of Okehi-Eberi-Omuma road and bridge, it is just a five or ten-minute drive from the bridge. Before the bridge was built, we were suffering. We thank the NDDC for answering our prayers. Like Oliver Twist, we want some more projects to be sited in the two local government areas."
An appreciative Daniel Okechukwu, a student, told Newswatch: "This road and the bridge are something we had long expected and dreamt of. Our fathers, grandfathers and even our great grandfathers had prayed to see them happen in their time. But we are happy to see them happen in our time. Life here was hard before the bridge was constructed. A few years ago, 11 persons drowned in the river when they attempted to cross it in a canoe. We are happy that the NDDC has finally solved our problem."
Alaibe is equally happy that the people of the communities appreciate the contributions that the NDDC is making to improve the quality of their lives. He is particularly happy that the commission has been able to make an impact in communities where the presence of government at any level had never been felt. Said he: "I can tell you that we have implemented 2,416 projects in the last seven years. We have road projects that cover more than 4,000 kilometres and 60 bridges. It is unprecedented; I don’t know of any organisation that has that kind of performance record. The projects include roads, bridges, electricity, water, large scale farms, buildings, educational and health facilities, jetties, flood and erosion control, shoreline protection, land reclamation among others. Talking about human capacity development projects, we have trained over 4,000 people in the farms. We have treated over a million people in our free health scheme which is continuing in partnership with an NGO, non-governmental organisation, called Pro-Health."
The CEO dismissed insinuations that the commission is competing with state governments in its operation. "The truth is that we are not in competition with any tier of government in the matter of sustainable development in the region. Yet with the lean resources we have, there is no local government area in the Niger Delta that has not felt the impact of the NDDC. So, you must be able to juxtapose our activities and programmes with the resources available to us and then benchmark it with something," he said.
Apart from roads and water, one area on which the NDDC has really spent a good deal of its money is rural electrification. According to Alaibe, several communities which, hitherto, thought electricity was an elusive desire are now enjoying the amenity as a result of NDDC intervention. Some of such beneficiaries are Igbekebo headquarters of Ese-Odo local government, and the adjoining communities in Ondo State.
Olusegun Agagu, governor of the State, summed up the feelings of the communities in the speech he delivered on the day the project was commissioned in February this year. Said the governor: "Before now, there was only one local government headquarters in Ondo State that was not hooked to the national grid. We thank God that today, Igbekebo is leaving that unenviable league, and by what we are doing today, all local government headquarters in Ondo State have been linked to the national grid." Alaibe said as part of its rural electrification scheme, the NDDC has so far distributed more than 1,000 transformers to communities in the Niger Delta region.
However, Alaibe hit back at those who, he said, continue to make loose comments on alleged non-performance of the commission. He said: "When people make some loose comments, it does not really bother us. Our projects are located mainly in communities where the presence of government has never 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."
Alaibe is a little more than one year in the saddle as CEO of the commission. Has he made any difference in the commission? He believes he has and explains: "One of the major things I have achieved is the difference that the NDDC has made in the development of the Niger Delta Regional Master Plan. There was a slow down in the crafting of the plan until I took over and then we gave ourselves a challenge that we must conclude the process of crafting the plan. In a record three-month period we concluded the plan and it was launched by the former president (Olusegun Obasanjo) in April 2007. That, as far as I am concerned, was a major milestone."
Another significant milestone, he said he recorded, is the fundamental changes he made in the way the commission operates. Strict enforcement of due process is now the order of the day. Alaibe said he has now positioned the commission to be able to face the challenges of implementing the master plan. In this respect, the NDDC has engaged a world class management consultancy firm to reposition it for the future. What does this involve?
According to the commission’s CEO, it involves conducting a diagnostics review of the NDDC. The review will cover processes systems, soft issues, discipline, personnel and technology. This will bring about an efficient implementation of the projects and programmes of the commission. The review will also involve benchmarking at the commission in line with what happens at the international level. Alaibe explained that the benchmarking would ensure that the NDDC is not seen as contract cow, but as a flagship organisation that gives policy direction on issues of sustainable development of the Niger Delta. "It is very easy for any qualified contractor to get a contract in the NDDC today without going through any official of the commission," Alaibe boasted.
In spite of the changes, the commission still has some challenges to face. One of such challenges is the cynical attitude of Niger Deltans. Observed Alaibe: "Today it seems that the Niger Delta people are noted for cynicism and 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 those of his leaders. This cynicism has gradually crept into our daily lives."
He said as a result of this attitude, some Niger Deltans have refused to recognise and appreciate the contributions of the NDDC to the development of the region. Added Alaibe: "Many people drive on NDDC roads and yet say it has not done anything." He made reference to the attitude of a group known as Patriotic Niger Delta Mothers whose widely advertised petition in the national dailies, sees nothing good in the commission and therefore wants it probed and scrapped.
Is Alaibe afraid of being probed? He said contrary to the impression in certain quarters that the commission is corrupt, the NDDC is the most supervised and monitored public organisation in Nigeria. Among the various committees supervising or monitoring the activities of the NDDC at the executive level are the special presidential monitoring committee, the office of the secretary to the government of the federation and the auditor- general. At the National Assembly level, the committees on Niger Delta Development as well as committees on public accounts in the Senate and the House of Representatives carry out oversight functions on the commission. Outside government level, groups like youths of the Niger Delta, external auditors, civil societies at local and international levels also monitor the activities of the commission. He said under such close supervision and monitoring, it is difficult for fraud to go on in the NDDC without detection.
Apart from cynicism and petition – writing, which Alaibe said have become a big industry, attracting even the intelligent class to its fold, rumour-mongering is also a big problem to the commission. He wondered why Niger Deltans prefer to spend their time peddling destructive rumours that cannot help the development of the region. This notwithstanding, Alaibe gave an assurance that the commission would not be intimidated to lose its focus as a result of rumour-mongering.
Perhaps, the greatest challenge capable of distracting the commission is youth militancy, which has assumed a criminal dimension in the region. Alaibe recognises this challenge. He told Newswatch: "We are not unaware of the things that are happening in the environment – the new challenge against change in the name of youth militancy and agitation. Even though some people have come up with various strategies on how to resolve the problem, we believe that constructive engagement is the positive way of resolving matters of the Niger Delta. The militants are our children and relations who are forced into militancy and agitation by the activities of the society. Most of them have no alternative sources of income."
Conscious of the factors that promote militancy and agitation, the commission has initiated a programme designed to constructively engage the youths. It is a programme which involves a re-orientation and a re-conscientisation of the youths. The programme is designed to make the militant youths to realise that no meaningful development can take place in an atmosphere of violence. Said Alaibe: "The non-violence strategy is a strategy we promote as a means of demobilising the militants. We believe that agitation can be done without carrying guns. Those who pass through this programme are all trained in skills to enable them have a means of livelihood." The non-violence training programme is not only for the militants, youth leaders in the region are also beneficiaries. Over 7,000 participants in the programme passed out recently.
Youth militancy is capable of threatening the operations of the commission and Alaibe is aware of this threat. To avert such a situation, the NDDC encourages the communities to form development groups to work hand-in-hand with contractors handling projects in their territories. This strategy is an instant success and has considerably reduced instances of attacks or kidnapping of workers at project sites by armed militants. Alaibe said the strategy has worked because the communities now feel the contractors are working with them and not for them. He said the communities now take the responsibility of protecting the contractors and their workers.
Can there ever be a final solution to the Niger Delta problems? Alaibe feels there can be. His belief is that the Regional Master Plan is a viable strategy for solving the problems. He said that was what the Willinks Commission said should be done when it recommended that the Niger Delta be made a special area for the purpose of development. This recommendation was ignored by successive federal governments until Nigeria finds itself where it is. "So if we must resolve the problems, we must do it constructively. The strategies and polices that are embedded in that plan should be the framework for solving problems," the NDDC chief explained.
But can President Umaru Yar’Adua muster enough political will to ensure a faithful implantation of the master plan? A faithful implementation of the plan demands increased funding for the NDDC, but the president has not shown any indication that he has that political will to do that especially given his refusal to release the N240 billion the federal government owed the commission on the pretext that statutory allocations not paid out at the end the financial year, had lapsed.
For the master plan to make the desired impact, according to Alaibe, it requires $100 billion for implementation. That translates into several trillions of Naira. But in more than seven years of its existence, the NDDC has received only N200 billion from the federal government. At this level of funding, according to James Manager, chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development, it will take more than 200 years to develop the Niger Delta. Alaibe says the commission requires an annual allocation of at least N350 billion for it to faithfully implement the plan. Can Yar’Adua make such an amount available to the NDDC every year? Niger Deltans are waiting and watching.
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