As the tenure of the current administration and most political leaders draws to a close, one is inclined to consider how the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, under the saddled of Dr. Steven Oru (MNDA), have performed and whether such performance will have an impact on the forthcoming elections.
Few months along the line, opinions are sharply divided whether the new minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr. Steven Oru like his counter- parts have stood out, struggling with meeting the expectations of their jobs, or have completely floundered.
The development of Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region has remained a major challenge for the federal government, with local communities increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with government efforts
Regrettably, there is no country-wide unified measurement framework, to enable people determine the performance of their leaders vis-a-vis budgetary allocations, resources and opportunities, and the absence of such a defined performance measurement framework leaves room for diverse interpretations of what is considered an achievement and gives leaders the latitude to tell their stories how they deem fit, or claim accomplishments, where very little has been delivered.
Opinions are that If the state of East West road that recently claimed the lives of 11 female politicians from Bayelsa state and several other commuters plying the road is to be used as a barometer to assess the minister, Dr. Steven Oru, in the last one year, Nigerians will most certainly not give him a pass mark.
This is because almost one year after Oru came on board as minister of this critical beat, investigations shows that various development projects handled by the ministry is at a standstill.
Feelers are that the minister seemed to be hamstrung by a lack of political will to really enforce completion of projects he inherited from Orubebe many of which stood at 68- 75% completion, especially as it affects the Skill Acquisition Centres and housing projects.
Before Dr. Oru’s resumption as minister, the breakdown of work done by his predecessor showed that the 87.4km Warri-Kaiama stretch had 65 kilometres asphaltic binder and 98 kilometres earthworks completed. And that of the 19 bridges in the stretch, 18 have been completed while 75 per cent of the Patani Bridge sub-structure and pre-fabricated box girder segments were completed.
According to his predecessors breakdown, the 54-kilometre Kaiama-Ahoada area of the road, 10 kilometres had asphaltic binder and 15- kilometre earthworks while seven of the 11 bridges were fully completed. Similarly, the 47-kilometre Ahoada-Port Harcourt stretch had 15-kilometre asphaltic binder and 28-kilometre earthwork completed.
The Section III covering Port Harcourt-Eket stretch and handled by RCC has 124-kilometre asphaltic binder and 149-kilometere earthwork with four bridges completed while Section IV, which runs from Eket to Oron, had 24 kilometres asphaltic binder and 35-km earthwork completed while five of the six bridges were also completed before March 2014. The question now is what new feat has the ministry attained under Dr. Oru’s saddle?
Why is the ministry delaying the commissioning of the almost 85 percent completed Skill Acquisition Center and 70 percent Housing scheme located at Otuoeke and Odi Communities in Bayelsa States? Why is the ministry also silent about the Housing and skill acquisition center projects situated in Akpabuyo in Cross River State? Is the ministry bankrupt? What has happened to the ministry’s alternative funding explored to boost the completion of the all- important road?
A renowned activist and and president, Agape Birthrights Foundation and National Convener, Niger Delta Self Determination Movement, Ms. Briggs said recently, that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), have failed to achieve the essence for which they were established.
Briggs, had sometime in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the number of abandoned projects both by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC speaks of the failure of both agencies. .
The activists even called on the federal government to pay money owed the ministry and NDDC into a special intervention fund for the region, stressing that they have failed to justify billions of naira given to them for the development of the region.
She said: “I moved a motion at the just-concluded national conference calling for the payment of all monies owed both the ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC by the Federal Government, which motion succeeded in the affirmative.
Interestingly, another meeting of Ijaw leaders and elders commendably initiated by the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, devoted attention to the deterioration in the Niger Delta and called on President Goodluck Jonathan to sack non-performing members of his cabinet especially those from the South South. This obviously was because the Ijaw leaders were becoming genuinely worried by the failure of political appointees from the President’s South-South region to carry out their responsibilities in accordance with the people’s expectations.
Top Ijaw personalities, who attended the meeting from Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, argued that people in the region seemed to have a low rating of President Jonathan’s performance because some appointees from the area had not done enough to enhance the image of the President. Niger Delta Ministry was specifically blamed for the very slow pace of development in the region citing the parlous state of the east-west road as benchmark of inaction by responsible authorities.
How can we throughout these years cry that people from outside the region never took the problems of infrastructural deficit and outright neglect of the area beyond lip service and deceptive political jives and now we have been given a full Ministry with “sons of the soil” in charge only to worsen the fortunes of the area.
How can we throughout these years cry that people from outside the region never took the problems of infrastructural deficit and outright neglect of the area beyond lip service and deceptive political jives and now we have been given a full Ministry with “sons of the soil” in charge only to worsen the fortunes of the area
As rightly said by the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group in one of its reports report captioned,’ The Niger Delta, Our Land, Our Ministry, Our Budget, Our Suffering: harped that “It is saddening that, at a time Niger Deltans are holding strategic political positions in Nigeria, the region is not doing any better. If our people cannot accelerate the development of the area, would Niger Deltans in future have the moral justification to ask other people to come and develop the area?
Meanwhile , the minister, Dr. Stephen Oru, had in a statement by the ministry’s director of information, Mr. Salisu Na’inna Dambatta debunked insinuations that the Ministry is executing one project only, the 388-kilometre East-West project, and disclosed that it is currently executing 16 other road projects in the region.
According to the statement, the minister made the argument while addressing journalists in Port Harcourt shortly after inspecting the Ministry’s project sites in Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states respectively.
Dr. Stephen Oru said that it was a manifestation of ignorance for anybody to claim that the Ministry was only the East west Road project.
