Christian Oboh, managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, speaks with Godfrey Azubike, staff writer, on the priorities of the new management of the commission. Excerpts:

Newswatch: What is going to be the focus of this administration?

Oboh:  When we came on board, we found out that there are so many projects that are littered all over the region. Our focus will be to ensure that we complete as many projects as possible within the time limit that we have. We are going to do this by first of all changing our budgeting processes. We found out that we just award projects and during budgeting, projects are not provided for and are, therefore, not properly funded. We are going to change our style of funding. We are also going to change our style of service delivery. Contractors would be given projects that have specifications, and we are also going to ensure that those projects would be effectively supervised and then God willing ,we will have projects that bear the name of the NDDC between November and December this year.

Newswatch: What’s the NDDC rice project all about?

Oboh: The rice project is actually intended to provide food for our people cheaply and also remove a lot of our youths from the streets. We are proposing a large farm. We are also proposing to establish a rice processing mill. There is one currently located at Elele in Rivers State. All these we intend to do to ensure we deliver in good time and to provide employment and also food for our people.

Newswatch: What lessons have you learnt from the bickering and crisis which led to the change of the administration that brought you in?

Oboh: The lessons that we have learnt is that there has to be team work. So, I can say that we are enjoying a very good relationship with our board. You can see that one of the executive directors just walked in here, so if we are not on the same team it means he will not come here to cross check some facts. What we can say is that we currently have a team that is on the same page. We try to be as much open as we can to each other, we also met a team on the ground from the directors to the cleaner here. We will ensure that all partitions that we met here would collapse into one team and I believe that if we have one team whose focus is to deliver project, we will not have any problem.

Newswatch: Approval of project was parts of the problem in that administration. What have you done to disallow that kind of situation from happening again?

Oboh: Well, we are playing by the rules. There are laws establishing the commission, and that is just what we are operating with. There is no disagreement between myself and the director of finance on who approves or who does approve. So, we are using the law establishing us as a guide, and I think the board is also happy with what we are doing.

Newswatch: What are the Niger Delta people expecting from you at the end of your tenure? 

Oboh: The expectation is so high. We are praying to God to give us the grace to be able to deliver. We have been assuring our people we will deliver. We need their co-operation, we need their prayers, we need their understanding because project delivery is a huge task, but we can assure them that by the time we end our tenure on the August 6, 2013, we will have few projects that would be standing that people can attest that to and we can then say that at this time in our lives, when we occupied this position, we did this and that.

Newswatch: What do you say of the state of funding of the NDDC?

Oboh: Yes, for now funding is not our problem, but we know that the federal government owes us quite enormous funds that we are still expecting that if they are released to us, it will facilitate the completion of most of the projects. Yes, they have released so much to the commission, but I can say that what we have received is still not enough to develop the region because the terrain is quite difficult. To build one kilometre of road, say in Bayelsa State, is quite expensive. We are also appealing to the federal government to look in our direction to release the outstanding funds; to enable us move faster and to complete ongoing projects.