Following the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari ordering a forensic auditing of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Niger Delta Youth Vangard (NDYV) and Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Militants (CONDEM) are urging the President to inaugurate the newly named board of NDDC to assist the forensic audit team that will be put in place.
At a Press Conference held at the Ernest Ikoli Press Centre Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday, October 22, 3019, the activists said the new board is led by people with the respect right qualification to supervise the process.
It would be recalled that the President, worried by public outcry and criticisms against the interim board of the Commission headed by Dr. Akwangaga Lelegima Enyia over allegation of shady employment deals and alleged dubious award and payments for water hyacinth contracts that failed due process, had during a meeting with governors from the Niger Delta recently, ordered a forensic auditing of the board of the Commission from 2001 till date.
Going by the wide media report on the allegation that the interim management team of the Commission, was set to illegally recruit over 300 new staff without board approval, the interim management team therefore lacks the credibility to guide the forensic audit team expected to be set up.
We advise that the audit team should not be supervised by the interim team of bureaucrats who are themselves part of the systemic rot that have bedeviled the commission rather the new board that was not part of the rot be inaugurated to carry out house cleaning exercise under an atmosphere of transparency that will discourage undue interference.
The delay in confirming the newly appointed Governing Board is counterproductive. If the purpose of the ordered audit is to get to the bottom of the NDDC’s failure, despite the huge funding it has enjoyed for almost 20 years, then the best approach is to have the probe done under a new management. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to carry out the ordered audit under the interim management headed by Dr. Nkwangaga Lelegima.
Naysayers can say all they like about President Buhari, we’ll continue to appreciate him as leader, who has the courage to beam the searchlight into some of the darkest recesses of our national life. He is straightening some of our crooked past and this has positioned his administration in good stead.
However, if the audit is done with the current interim management of the NDDC in place, it will be a disaster for the Commission and the anti-corruption agenda of the Buhari administration.
