Niger Delta Development Commission

Niger Delta Development Commission
Formation	June 5, 2000
Headquarters	Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Chairman	Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinyan
Managing Director	Mr Chibuzor Ugwoha
Website	http://www.nddc.gov.ng

The Niger Delta Development Commission is a Federal Government agency established by Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo in the year 2000 with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. In September 2008, President Umaru Yar'Adua announced the formation of a Niger Delta Ministry, with the Niger Delta Development Commission to become a parastatal under the ministry.^[1]

Background

The NDDC was created largely as a response to the demands of the population of the Niger Delta, a populous area inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups. During the 1990s these ethnic groups, most notably the Ijaw and the Ogoni established organisations to confront the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies such as Shell. The minorities of the Niger Delta have continued to agitate and articulate demands for greater autonomy and control of the area's petroleum resources. They justify their grievances by reference to the extensive environmental degradation and pollution from oil activities that have occurred in the region since the late 1950s. However, the minority communities of oil producing areas have received little or no currency from the oil industry and environmental remediation measures are limited and negligible. The region is highly underdeveloped and is poor even by Nigeria's standards for quality of life.

Sometimes violent confrontation with the state and oil companies, as well as with other communities has constrained oil production as disaffected youth or organisations deliberately disrupt oil operations in attempts to effect change. These disruptions have been extremely costly to the Nigerian oil industry, and both the multinationals and the federal government have vested interests in permitting uninterrupted extraction operations; the NDDC is a result of these concerns and is an attempt to satisfy the demands of the delta's population.

Mandate and operations

President, Olusegun Obasanjo (left), Rivers State Governor Peter Odili (center), and NDDC Chairman, Onyema Ugochukwu (right) at the opening of the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt.

The NDDC operates under the mandate of improving social and environmental conditions in the South-South region, which it acknowledges as horrific in its own reports. However, the organisation has come under scrutiny and according to some is generally regarded as vehicle of corruption and prebendalism.

To achieve its mandate, the NDDC board identified the following areas of focus: Development of social and physical infrastructure Technology Economic revival and prosperity Ecological/environmental remediation and stability Human development

Executive Chairman

The position of Executive Chairman of the NDDC has been a subject of much debate. A compromise was reached where the position would be rotated within the nine oil producing states in alphabetical order: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

Chairman	State	Term of Service
Mr. Chibuzor Ugwoha	Rivers State	2008- Present
Samuel Edem	Akwa Ibom	2005 - 2009 Suspended
Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinyan	Bayelsa State	2009 - Present
Dr. (Mrs.) C.V.N. Atako	Delta State	2009 - Present

References

1. ^ Juliana Taiwo (11 September 2008). "Yar'Adua Creates Ministry of Niger Delta". This Day. http://allafrica.com/stories/200809110015.html. Retrieved 2009-12-26. 

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