Home | Columnist | Jostling for NDDC’s Big Jobs

Jostling for NDDC’s Big Jobs

By newswatchngr.com 14/10/2011 05:32:00

Font size:

Several bigwigs, including an ex-senator and former governorship aspirants line up for appointment into the Niger Delta Development Commission’s top management and board positions

With the recent sacking of the management and board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, by President Goodluck Jonathan, lobbyists have besieged Aso Rock to persuade the president to consider them for appointment into the soon to be constituted team for the commission.

Acting on the recommendations of the presidential committee on NDDC headed by Steve Oronsanye, former head of service of the federation, the president sacked Chibuzor Ugwoha as managing director; Power Ziakede, executive director, finance and Esoetok Etteh, executive director, projects. The governing board of the commission under the chairmanship of Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinyan was also dissolved.

Since their sack a few weeks ago, some governors of the nine oil producing states belonging to the NDDC have been positioning their preferred candidates for appointment into the incoming management team of the commission. Newswatch, however, learnt that a good number of those currently jostling for the post of managing director of the commission are from Rivers State. This is because Ugwoha, the immediate past occupant of the position is from the state and did not serve out his four-year tenure before he was sacked as a result of the management crisis in the commission.

Among prominent politicians from Rivers State jostling for the plum jobs are Tonye Princewill, former governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Dumo Lulu-Briggs, former governorship candidate of the National Democratic Party, NDP; Tonye Cole, former governorship aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and Elemchukwu Ogbowu, former commissioner in Rivers State. It was gathered that the Rivers State government is seriously lobbying for the position to be retained by the state because the people of the state believe that it would be unjust to cede the exalted office to another state since Ugwoha, their son, was not allowed to serve out his tenure.

Of the four politicians from Rivers State eyeing the post, Princewill appears to be highly favoured by Chibuike Amaechi, governor of the state. Although he is a political ally of Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, he is also a close friend of Amaechi. He is the son of J. T. J. Princewill, the chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, and the Amanyanabo of Kalabari land. He has a political working understanding with Amaechi. In 2007, he had vied for the governorship in the state under the platform of the ACN and later embraced Amaechi’s government when he was declared the governor through the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court.

When Atiku, the former vice-president, returned to PDP, Princewill also did so with him, and this development brought him much closer to Amaechi. Princewill is touted as the possible person the governor will nominate to serve out the remaining part of the tenure of Ugwoha as NDDC managing director. Another factor that would likely work in his favour is that he was a member of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, constituted by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to recommend measures for addressing the problem of militancy in the oil rich region.

Lulu-Briggs, another contender for the post of managing director of the NDDC, is equally not a stranger in Rivers politics. He was also a former governorship aspirant in the state. He has been the chairman of the board of directors of the Nigerian Maritime Academy, Oron, in Akwa Ibom State. He is also the son of O. B. Lulu-Briggs, the multibillionaire founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, a private indigenous oil and gas exploration and production company, with head office in PortHarcourt, and branches in Lagos and London. Newswatch learnt that his father, who was a top politician in Nigeria’s second and third republics, is equally helping him to lobby for the NDDC job.

Elemchukwu Ogbowu, also wants the job. He is from the same local government area with Ugwoha whose tenure was cut short. Both of them are also from Egi clan. Ogbowu’s kinsmen from Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area want President Jonathan to appoint him so that he could complete the tenure of Ugwoha.

While the politicians from Rivers State were busy lobbying for the position, Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, is looking in a different direction. He was said to have recommended that Jonathan should appoint Senator Udo Udoma as Ugwoha’s successor. Udoma, the present chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC,who was a colleague of Anyim in the Senate, is from Akwa Ibom State. Sources told Newswatch that Udoma is highly favoured to secure the plum job because he also enjoys the support of his state development. Anyim was said to have advised the president not to follow the usual tradition of asking states to nominate candidates if he truly wants the new team to fulfill its mandate of developing the Niger Delta region.

The president appears to have accepted the advice of Anyim hence, he was said to have shunned the governors of the nine oil producing states of the Niger Delta on the appointment of the yet to be constituted executive management team of the NDDC. Apart from Anyim’s advice, Jonathan’s stance is based on the provisions of Section 12 of the NDDC Act 2000, which states that the managing director and two executive directors of the commission “shall be appointed by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and confirmed by the Senate in consultation with the House of Representatives.” The Act also vested the power to constitute the board of the commission on the president.

Jonathan was said to be avoiding lobbyists for the top jobs because he does not want a repeat of what obtained under the sacked management and board of the commission which was like a house divided against itself. The sacked top officials who were virtually imposed on the presidency by their respective governors owed their loyalties to the chief executives of their states who nominated them. Consequently, the management team was polarised as the principal officers were at daggers drawn over the control of the finances and award of contracts.