The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), is a Federal Agency of Nigerian government which was set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the year 2000 with the primary aim of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The Commission is charged with the responsibility to ensuring a rapid, even, stable and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically stable, socially, buoyant, and ecologically regenerative in order to maintain a politically, socially and economic peaceful region.
In this post, we shall take a look at the The Niger Delta Development Commission as a federal government agency, brief history and functions and attempt to reconcile how well the commission has fared since its inception.
Brief History
The NDDC came into being, largely as a response to the agitations of the population of the Niger Delta area, inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups made up of the Ogoni, Ijaw, Itsekiris and others.
As far back as early 1990s, these ethnic groups had confrontations with the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies present in their community.
They demanded among other things, greater autonomy and control of the area’s natural resources. They justify their grievances by pointing to the extensive environmental degradation and pollution from oil activities that have occurred in the region since the late 1950s when oil was first discovered in Olobiri community in Bayelsa State in 1948.
Since then, the minority communities of the oil producing areas have remained underdeveloped, with little or nothing to show for it. Poverty has continued to slap them on their faces with very limited presence of social amenities in their areas like pipe borne water, hospitals, schools and others.
This caused lots of disaffection among the ethnic groups who disrupt oil operations in order to bring about the needed change. These disruptions have been extremely costly to the Nigerian government and the multinational companies who operate in their areas and to have a lasting peace and uninterrupted extraction operations, led to the setting up of the Niger Delta Development Commission to satisfy their demands in the year 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In September 2008, President Umaru Yar’Adua announced the formation of a Niger Delta Ministry, with the Niger Delta Development Commission emerging a parastatal under the ministry.
One of the core mandates of the commission is to train and educate the youths of the oil rich Niger Delta region to curb hostilities and militancy, while developing key infrastructure to promote diversification and productivity.
Functions of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Niger Delta Development Commission was established by the Federal government of Nigeria primarily to perform basic functions as it affects the Niger Delta region of the country. They include:
- Development of the Niger Delta Area
Development of the Niger Delta region forms the basic mandate for the establishment of NDDC. Infrastructural development especially in the rural and interior areas so as to reduce the tension and ensure that these regions benefit immensely from dividends of democracy in the interest of justice, fairness and equity.
- Conflict Resolution in the Niger Delta Region
It is the responsibility of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to help resolve issues in the Niger Delta region through conflict resolution committee.
This is to ensure that peace rain the region which ultimately promotes peace and harmony in the country. There can be no meaningful development without peace and cooperation among existing states and to achieve this task, the NDDC was set up.
- Poverty alleviation in the Niger Delta Region
Poverty alleviation in the Niger Delta region is one of the core mandates of setting up the commission. The government sees the need to establish a number of projects to promote happiness and ensure that the people are trained to be independent and self-employed. This no doubt will also help to reduce their complete dependence on the government and promote peace in their domain.
- Fostering Peace and Unity Among the member states
Another core function of NDDC as a matter of national interest is to ensure that peace and unity rain between the states which make up the region.
To achieve this laudable aim, series of alternative dispute resolutions, conflict resolutions, and town hall meetings with stakeholders in the region aimed at charting a new course for the region have been achieved.
- Addressing Issues of National Interest As it Concerns the Niger Delta
Addressing issues of national interest in order to have peace both in the oil rich region and the government is very paramount and one of the key functions of NDDC.
The commission is given the mandate to tackle issues arising from the oil region so as to bring about peaceful coexistence among the federating units. The Niger Delta Development Commission has worked so hard towards ensuring that the militancy crisis in Nigeria sometime ago came to an abrupt end.
- Special Intervention Programmes in the Niger Delta region
Another key function of the NDDC is the responsibility of the commission to enact some special intervention strides to remedy numerous situations of emergency in the region.
Some of the special intervention programs of the commission include the renovation of dilapidated structures in schools, hospitals, provision of good pipe borne water, road construction projects and others are carried out in the region.
- Creating a direct Synergy between Niger Delta, the federal government, and other regions of the Nation
Creating a direct interface or synergy between Niger Delta, the federal government, and other regions of the Nation has helped to curb in no small way crisis and agitation for self control of the oil rich region.
For instance, NDDC gives the federal government firsthand information on the way forward in the region, making recommendations as the may require. The agency also gives a good platform for synergy between the Niger Delta area and other areas of the federation.
- Lastly, NDDC partners with various oil mineral and gas prospecting and producing companies on issues of pollution, prevention and control just to ensure a thorough cleanup of the oil production areas in cases of oil spillage to avoid harm to lives, farms and other agricultural outlets.
In all, the efforts of the NDDC aimed at achieving its mandate over the years have been so invaluable and highly commendable in achieving the peace and foster unity in the country.
To this end, we can rightly say that the NDDC has lived up to expectations and such giant strides are commendable as many youths of the region have been trained in different skill acquisition programs. Social amenities which hitherto had remained dilapidated have also been upgraded and in some cases, now ones have been built which have added value in no small way to the social, economic and political transformation not only in the region but in the entire country as a whole.