28 August 2013, Lagos – The scramble for appointments into top positions of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has heated up as indigenes from the oil-producing states are intensifying efforts to outwit one another.
The positions up for grab are that of the Managing Director and Executive Directors, Finance, Administration and Projects.
Indications on this emerged, Tuesday, with the letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan by the Chairman of the Traditional Rulers of the Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON, and Amapetu of Mahin in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Lawrence Omowole.
Citing Section 12 of the NDDC Act, Omowole in the letter he personally signed, said it was the turn of Ondo State to produce the next managing director of the commission or at least, get the position of Executive Director, Projects.
“Section 12 of the NNDC Act provides that there shall be for the commission a Managing Director and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas starting with the member state of the commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate among member states in order of production,” he said.
The Amapetu listed the present ascribed production status of the nine member states of the commission, saying it ranges from the highest in the order of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Ondo, Imo, Abia, Edo and Cross River.
“Since the inception of the NDDC in 2000, the positions of the Managing Director and the two Executive Directors have circulated exclusively albeit unacceptably among Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa States.
“Among the four of them, Delta State had held the position of managing director and twice the executive directors, finance and administration; Bayelsa, the managing director and executive directors, finance and administration; Akwa Ibom twice executive director, project and Rivers State managing director and executive director,” he said.
The monarch said he was aware that some states, including those that had occupied the positions several time were also scrambling for the indigenes of their states be appointed into these positions to the detriment of others that had not held the positions.
“The monopoly of the three positions by the first four states is in breach of the clear provision of the Section 12 of the NNDC Act and offensive to the spirit of equity, fairness and inclusiveness most desired for the unity, peace and development of the land and the people of our region.
“Neither the founders of the commission, the National Assembly nor the leaders of our region ever contemplated the inconceivable situation of an executive cartel within the commission.
“The arrangement in TROMPCON, where all the zones of the region have produced its national chairman and chief executive, is worthy of emulation and in clear direction for equity by the traditional institution within the NDDC states,” he said.
Omowole therefore demanded that the offices of the managing director and the two executive directors be rotated to include the deserved states so far excluded as the NDDC Act does not permit any of the states to have held any of the three positions more than once while others remained excluded.
“The first four states having held the positions severally in the past, Ondo State as the fifth in the order of production be considered for the position of the managing director or at the least, the executive director, projects,” the Amapetu stated.
– This Day