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Two university dons, Prof Ambily Etekpe and Dr Tare Dadiowei say unless technocrats were appointed to head the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) the much expected infrastructure development will remain a mirage, and blamed the oil producing companies for not only neglecting their host communities, but also for being responsible for strange ailments and deformities of children born in these areas that were negatively impacted by incessant oil spills.
Both dons spoke on the sidelines of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission which recently met with civil society organizations to seek their inputs.
According to Prof Etekpe, a lecturer in the department of Political Science and director of the Institute of Niger Delta studies, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, the NDDC has not achieved its mandate as an interventionist agency established to fast track development in oil producing states that have been raped of progress by the oil and gas exploitation and exploration.
It has been suggested that the agency had become a breeding group for politician to learn politics and award contracts to their cronies who are untouchable should they fail to execute the projects, hence litany of NDDC abandoned projects dotting every part of the Niger Delta, with Bayelsa among the states with the highest number with abandoned projects, which moved the state governor Seriake Dickson to set a committee headed by Dr Charles Ambaowei.
Prof Etekpe said he wouldn’t mind scrapping the agency for lack of performance, citing the abandoned hostel project at the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island that has become a monument.
According to him history is replete with the appointment of only politicians on the board of NDDC from its inception
He castigated the Federal government on its lopsided policies on oil and gas, and urged the government at the center to revisit the 13% derivation to oil producing communities and states, like Bayelsa, that have not establish oil producing communities commission to address infrastructure deficit in the areas.
He also blamed states for their failure to deploy the ecological Fund judiciously and attributed the woes of Niger Delta oil producing communities to internal politics. He further called on the Bayelsa Oil and Environment Commission to extend its collaboration to the Niger Delta Institute which has done a lot of research on oil spills and its impact on the environment and the people.
In related development, Dr Tare Dadiowei, a lecturer at the Isaac Boro College of Education, Sagbama blamed the Federal Government and IOCs for the underdevelopment and environmental degradation in the region.
According to him, since the operation of SPDC and IOCs in Bayelsa State for decades the people still continue to bear the brunt of oil spills, gas flaring and other negative environmental impacts.
In spite of Niger Delta contributions, the oil producing areas still live in abject poverty, lack of infrastructure, hospitals, potable water and unemployment, due to pollution in the creeks, failure to adhere to agreed GMoUs, resulting to conflicts, illegal refineries and militancy.
