New Telegraph

Corruption allegations at NDDC, prophecy foretold –Junaid

Social critic and a former member of the House of Representatives during the Second Republic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has described the allegations of monumental corruption rocking the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as a prophecy foretold, saying the ugly phenomenon could have been avoided if the Federal Government had insulated the institution from the local politics in the region.

 

Junaid, who once served on the board of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), the forerunner of the NDDC, said he warned at the beginning that the interventionist agency should have been managed by development experts, rather politicians from the Niger Delta region.

 

The medical doctor-turned politician said that having seen the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta after many years of oil exploration and production, he believed in the mission of OMPADEC and NDDC because of the need to give back to the oil rich region.

 

However, he said he was not surprised that both agencies failed to deliver on their mandate.

“In 1992, when I was offered the opportunity to serve in OMPADEC , I believed that those areas where oil has been pumped for many years deserved to have something in return.

 

I believe they should be developed but I don’t believe in drawing comparisons between Niger Delta and Qatar, Dubai or parts of Saudi Arabia.

 

We are not Dubai, we are not Saudi Arabia, but at least we can do something. “I haven’t been paying much attention to that place since I left, but I made a prophecy many years ago.

 

When OMPADEC was set up, I told Gen. Ibrahim Babangida that that thing was never going to work, if you make the people in the Niger Delta the leaders to become the alpha and omega in that national assignment.

 

I believe in the mission of OMPADEC and NDDC, but I don’t believe that people who have been put there can ever deliver on the mandate of those institutions. The fact that they have not delivered is not a surprise to me.

 

“Secondly, the huge amount of money which was set aside for the agency was not fair to the people from other parts of the country.

 

It was also not fair to the people of the Niger Delta themselves because all that has happened so far is throwing in huge amounts of money that is hardly accounted for at the end of the day.

 

 

A certain group of people, particularly members of the political class in the Niger Delta, would steal the money and nobody calls them to order,” he said.

 

Junaid expressed displeasure at the controversies trailing the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC, as well as the past Managing Director of the agency, Dr. Joy Nunieh, over misappropriation of funds and the forensic audit at the agency.

 

“Whether (Senator Godswill) Akpabio and his Interim Management Committee (IMC) are right in insisting on the forensic audit of NDDC or not is not the issue now because he could not have been doing it without the support of the President.

 

But the question one would like to ask is, if the President is the one in charge of the whole exercise, why is it that we do not hear from him?

 

Why is it a quarrel between Akpabio and somebody who claims that he attempted to sexually assault her?

 

 

 

If at all it is true that there was an attempt on his (Akpabio) part to sexually molest or assault the former Managing Director of the NDDC then the whole place is smelling of corruption and moral bankruptcy,” Junaid said.

 

He lamented that right from the days of OMPADEC down to NDDC, there has been nothing to show for the huge amount of money that has been sunk into the Niger Delta.

 

Junaid said that if indeed the government was serious about fighting corruption in NDDC, it would have ensure that anyone proven to have misappropriated funds belonging to the agency was charged to court and upon conviction, sent to prison.

 

He warned Nigerians to look beyond the allegations of sexual harassment being played up by a former Managing Director of the agency, and insist that she give an account of her stewardship at the interventionist agency.

 

On the counter allegations of corruption levelled against the Senate and House Committees of the National Assembly by officials of the NDDC, Junaid urged the lawmakers to sue those who accused them of corruption if they felt so strongly about the matter and were convinced that the allegations were false. He decried the recent trend where officials invited to appear before Committees of the National Assembly have walked out on the lawmakers and attributed it to falling standards in the conduct of parliamentarians.

 

“You know I was once a member of the House of Representatives. In life, respect begets respect. Respect is reciprocal.

 

If you respect people in your behaviour, conduct, comportment and character, these will give room for people to respect you. If you don’t do that, you are not worthy of being respected. Universally, respect is reciprocal. “

 

Given what has been happening in the parliament since 1999, particularly during the last two administrations, I want to assure you that nobody will respect the National Assembly or its members,” he said.

 

 

Junaid reminded lawmakers that their powers to summon anybody to appear before them must not be abused as those who respond to their summons do so more out of respect for parliamentary tradition than out of fear that there is any particular law that forbids them from ignoring the summon.

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