The devil and the NDDC

The devil and the NDDC

The game of musical chairs, as it were, over the necessary take-off of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has become a serious cause for worry by all well-meaning Nigerians, who believe that the damage control rally at the Niger Delta should now begin and not be delayed any further.

First, it took several years of culpable neglect of the area by successive federal administrations and public outcry at home as well as denunciations abroad to come to the informed conclusion that positive remedial steps needed to be taken urgently before it became too late.

Next, came the wrangling over the articulation and aggregation of the multifarious interests involved in inaugurating such a commission. But after the bill was passed, but not without the flexing of both legislative and executive muscles, everyone thought Nigerians could now breath a sigh of relief.

It may well have been thought that reconciling such contradictions as to which portions of Nigeria belonged to the Niger Delta, the mode of funding the commission and whether the headquarters of the commission should be sited in Jerusalem or Gaza, that the tanks and weapons of war could now be withdrawn into the armoury.

But, wait a minute, the nation still has to contend with the drag-force of the devil's check-point. And before you dismiss that with the wave of the hand, please quickly marshal the prayer warriors. Yes, you may not have seen Prince of the power of the air don in his traditional black tail-coat with the swagger-stick for mischief-making at Nigeria's devil's check-point. Otherwise, what in all reasonableness could still shut the doors against a crying need and urgent interest of the nation in frustrating the rolling into motion of the NDDC up till a few days to the end of year 2000. If the Niger Delta Development Commission had begun its mobilisation efforts for some while now, the hopes and joys alone of the restive youth in the area would have saved the nation at least some of the head and heart aches dominating attention in that part of the country.

Nigeria is often described as a nation in a hurry. But that is not without cause. Its over 120 million people in the midst of abundance cannot afford to sit contendedly in the face of so many inadequacies on public welfare ñ water and power supply, poor communication and shortages of food supplies as well as other materials requisites of well-being.

This is why time is of the essence. it is no time for those who owe a duty to the people to simply savour their positions to indulge their ego. The people are impatient and are itching for what steps could be quickly taken to relieve their pressures. From Sokoto to Lagos and from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, take some time to look at the faces of people you come across in the streets, bus-stops and market places. The evidence of anguish written on them goes to explain why very minor events become exaggerated and easily lead to the breakdown of law and order and even to crises.

The government must accelerate the process and do what it should do with despatch. By government, the ordinary people do not understand that their elected representatives should be separated into any water-tight compartments of the executive, legislative and judicial arms. In their own reckoning, any failure at any level of governance is the failure of government, because it is a collective trust.

The public is impatient and downright angry with any conflicts and confrontations between the arms of government which are an impediment to a better tomorrow for the masses of the Nigerian people.

Every office of the executive branch of government should know this and the House of Representatives., and no less the Senate should be well aware of this too.

From the news reports and views publicly expressed in the media concerning the NDDC, it would appear that the buck is currently resting with the Senate, which has some difficulty in clearing the person of Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, twice presented as the presidential nominee for the chairmanship of the commission. I have no doubt in my mind that the honourable members of the Upper House of the nation's legislature and indeed the Senate have ample facility to ferret necessary information they may require to objectively screen nominees presented as prospective holders of high public office.

One does not know for sure what sticky point the Senate holds against Chief Ugochukwu's candidature to have turned down his nomination twice, having earlier in the life of this administration cleared him to be appointed a senior special assistant to the president on national orientation.

Furthermore, the fact that the President with his stress on the importance of the NDDC would not want to risk just anybody in such a critical portfolio, in itself suggests the level of trust and confidence he has in putting up the same nominee twice.

Barring the imponderables in the art of political joggling and manoeuvres, it is reasonable to imagine that the president means well not only for the strategic commission intended to engineer lasting development and thereby defuse tensions in the area but also to eliminate the incessant causes of conflicts and protests in the Delta region.

I suppose that at least explains in part why the president picked on a man like Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, who deep down is repouted as a cultivated gentleman, in every sense of that expression.

From his antecedents by his quality of training and familiar traits of character, Onyema in his well over 25 years of public service in the glare of inescapable visibility could be relied upon to engage in a most daunting task such as the NDDC Chairmanship with an appreciable degree of efficiency, thoroughness and yet without that unfortunate tendency in many a public office holder in Nigeria who land at the rope's end in their uncontrolled desire to inherit the Earth.

With the hind-sight of what finally became of OMPADEC in spite of the military shield both at its board level ñ riddled with rancour, down to the chorus of discontented voices among several communities in their fastidiousness, one can only imagine what challenges the chairman of NDDC will inevitably face in his task and the qualities of mind expected of anyone ultimately cleared by the Senate for the job.

Among other qualities, the prospective chairman of NDDC obviously will need to be a person with a good sense of fairness, balance of judgment and unquestionable integrity. Of course, it needs one who has the uncanny ability to elicit critical facts, working under pressure, the knowledge to recognise the truth or falsehood, no matter how well disguised and necessarily, the courage not to compromise the truth. With every sense of responsibility and the strict regard for national interest one could vouch without any bias in his favour that those who had been opportuned to know Chief Onyema Ugochukwu at close quarters should have no problem whatsoever endorsing his candidature for a position of trust and responsibility.

The Senate should therefore be rest assured that if given the nod, this is one nominee who is well equipped both in character and competence to give his best to the nation. Please, never allow the devil wrest NDDC away.

Mr. Okafor is a former editor of the Nigerian Daily Times.