By Ubong SAMPSON
Whenever the issue of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria is raised, the writer’s mind will always run to Michael Peel’s thorough investigative work, as imprinted in his book, “Swamp Full of Dollars”. Peel’s book describes the rich and raucous characters and life in Nigeria and the geopolitics of oil, as well as her history, the corruption, the creativity and such a wealth of possibilities in her early post-independent life (1960’s) sidelined by so many built-in negatives that worked against her transformation from the giant to the star of Africa.
When narrowed down, the Niger Delta does more in modelling the book’s title, considering its situation as the goose that lays the golden eggs, yet the most underdeveloped region in the country.
Peel must have seen Nigeria and its government in the light of a wealthy man who enjoys making babies.
The region’s underdeveloped situation that persisted for decades, coupled with sustained revolts by militating forces rising therein, was what influenced the creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Put simply, the initiative that birthed the commission was triggered by years of neglect and cries by Niger-Deltans which culminated in an uprising aimed at forcing the attention of authorities to their plights.
The commission was given the mandate of proffering a lasting solution to the region’s socio-economic challenges, as well as facilitating for it, a rapid and sustainable development that will transform the region to an economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful one. The pertinent question after 22 years of existence is, how far has the commission gone in fulfilling this mandate? The pertinence of the question notwithstanding, the foregoing rather seeks not to delve into the past misgivings in the commission, especially the case where drivers of the commission had mistaken it for a platform to launch or relaunch political careers and a milk source to feed outrageous political ambition bills, but to evaluate the developmental prospects of Niger Delta as the current reign under the new minister beckons, and in line with the action plan drawn from the core mandates of the commission.
