By Jerome-Mario Utomi
Many years ago, a certain sage within the religious circle was asked to name the three most important virtues to mankind, and he thus responded; the first is humility, the second is humility and the third is humility. This, according to him is because it is through humility that every other virtue emerges. For without humility, every other virtue will lose its meaning.
In like manner, if I am asked to mention three factors responsible for the sustained peace and progress presently enjoyed in the Niger Delta region, I need not pause to figure out that the three factors are; leadership, leadership and leadership.
Before delving into details of how leadership is rewriting the narrative of the region, it is always important, at least for the benefit of the readers, to highlight the region’s condition before now.
Aside from being perceived as a backward and degraded region, occasioned by crude oil exploration, exploitation and production, the Niger Delta region before now was considered a location where fierce war raged between ethnic and social forces in Nigeria over the ownership and control of oil resources. As a direct result, a long dark shadow was cast on efforts to improve the well-being and economic development of the region’s individuals, peoples, and communities.
To curb the scenario, the Federal Government in the year 2000 established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as a response to the social and economic crisis in the Niger Delta. It was conceived as an organization with the capacity to articulate the developmental needs of the Niger Delta and draw up a master plan for economic and social development in the region. This is evident in the agency’s mission and vision statement. It expresses its mission as “to facilitate the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful.” The vision of the agency is “to offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta region.” The strategy for accomplishing its mission includes the preparation and implementation of a master plan.
But contrary to the expectation of bringing coordinated development, the agency for many years, through protracted rancorous relationships that at different times and places existed between the members of the governing boards and managements, became a clog to achieving its statutory objective and brought to a halt the wheels of development of the region.
This ugly “culture” affected the region’s peace and development because as the saying goes, ‘’when two elephants fight, the grass suffers’’.
The situation was so bad that analysts described NDDC as a temporary political configuration set up by the federal government with neither the capacity to ease the tension in the area nor provide concrete solutions to the socio-economic and infrastructural challenges that bedevilled the region. That argument and perception lasted for an appreciable period of time.
However, today, there is a change in narrative as squabbles within the commission have become a thing of the past. The NDDC may not have reached where it is supposed to be, but in the last ten months, it has moved far from where it used to be and the people of the region feel and appreciate this rising hope.
The emergence of Mr Chiedu Ebie-led governing board and management has without doubt fought and defeated the menace of division which used to characterize the Commission’s governing board and management. They were intentional in unravelling subterfuges and impediments placed on the Commission’s part to peace and from the beginning, resolved to put to rest the ghost of this notorious malady. Today, an unprecedented peace and cordial relationship exists between the governing board and management.
Undoubtedly, it may be convenient for some to argue that the present peace and ongoing development flows from luck and, therefore, see nothing spectacular or newsy about it. But for Niger Deltans of goodwill with critical minds and interests, it goes beyond luck to include the art and science of the present leadership monitoring and analysing past trends, understanding how such occurrences set the stage for past failures and avoiding similar mistakes, recognizing the strategic importance of stakeholders and implementing planned programmes and mutually reinforcing action for the benefit of NDDC as a Commission and Niger Delta region and its people.
Supporting the above assertion was the declaration during the inauguration of the NDDC board in November 2023, at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Niger Delta Development in Abuja where the Chairman of the board, Chiedu Ebie among other remarks, stressed the need for collaboration with all stakeholders in driving the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for Nigeria and the Niger Delta region in particular.
He stated: “To maintain focus on our development efforts, the Board will honour and collaborate with critical stakeholders in the region. We will execute legacy projects based on detailed needs assessment. Furthermore, we will seek strategic collaborations and partnerships with opinion leaders, community leaders, professionals and development partners to leverage constructive and attainable outlooks.”.
The NDDC chairman remarked that effective communication with key stakeholders was paramount in the discharge of the Commission’s duties, noting that it would foster trust, restore transparency and promote accountability. Ebie affirmed: “The board will stand on the pedestal of Mr. President’s Renewed Hope mantra. We will look back at the vision and history of NDDC’s 23-year existential journey, aligning it with current realities and the objectives of the current administration.
“In tandem with the Presidency, National Assembly and Ministry of Niger Delta Development, we will take coordinated steps to come up with plans that will systematically guide our actions and efforts in actualizing our mandate. “We earnestly seek the support and goodwill of stakeholders and people of the Niger Delta Region to enable us to usher in a new era of vitality, hope, peace and sustainable development for the region.” He concluded.
Providing a level playing ground for all Niger Deltans to opportunities irrespective of tribe, sex, creed, social or political status, is another sterling example of how the present leadership and management of the Commission is promoting peace and attracting development.
Take as an illustration, speaking recently in Port Harcourt, during the launch of the second phase of Holistic Opportunities Programmes for Engagement, Project HOPE, which has registered 3.2million youths, the Commission’s Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku reportedly said “Over the years what has been happening is that because of political interests, people are given slots to nominate participants for empowerment programmes and most of these participants never had passion for these training programmes. After the training programmes, you see people selling off the starter packs and other equipment that were given to them after the training.
“In this case, we believe that once we pick you from the data based on your area of interest and passion, you are going to excel from there. And since you are in our database, we will also have our monitoring process to track your performance.”
While noting that the second phase is the implementation phase of eight meticulously designed programmes aimed at creating jobs and empowering our youth across various sectors such as agriculture and technology, he noted that the success of Project HOPE requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders and therefore encouraged the Niger Delta youths to embrace the opportunities with zeal and determination’’.
This piece holds the opinion that there is no way peace and development will not flourish in any environment where people with development mindsets like members of the NDDC governing board and management are in charge. The present NDDC governing board and management have truly strengthened the belief and in the past ten months demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that leadership is everything just as ‘’everything rises and falls on Leadership’’. For me, what they need is our collective support and not distractions.
Jerome-Mario Utomi, a media professional writes from Lagos, Nigeria. He can be reached via [email protected]/08032725374