What Tinubu Told Me About Niger Delta - NDDC Boss, Ogbuku Speaks

Dr Samuel Ogbuku, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has revealed what President Bola Tinubu told him about Niger Delta.

He said President Bola Tinubu told him to do more to develop the Niger Delta and impact positively on the people’s lives.

Ogbuku, during an interactive session with management and staff of NDDC at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, said he was given ‘new commandments’ when he visited the president recently in Abuja.

According to him, the president expressed disappointment with the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta, and the NDDC’s performance as an interventionist agency.

He said: “President Tinubu decried the mismanagement of resources of the Niger Delta, and directed the management team to return to the commission and ensure that a new NDDC emerged.”

A statement by the commission’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Dr. Ibitoye Abosede, said President Tinubu also expressed his readiness to reposition the NDDC to ensure that it worked in the interest of the people.

He said: “I made a pledge to President Tinubu that all resources at the Commission’s disposal will be judiciously utilised to increase and improve its impact in the region.”

Ogbuku also clarified that only the NDDC Governing Board was dissolved, while the management team, consisting the Managing Director, Executive Director (Finance and Administration), as well as the Executive Director (Projects) remained intact.

He hinted that the commission was planning to engage a multinational professional services consultant to help it set up a viable and sustainable corporate governance structure. 

The Executive Director (Projects), Charles Ogunmola, said the management was setting up new units to facilitate the ease of doing business with the Commission. He listed the proposed new units as Due Process Unit, Corporate Governance Unit and Contractor Support Unit.

Chairman of the NDDC Staff Union, Comrade Anthony Gbendo, appealed to the management to expedite action on the staff conditions of service, which ‘is long overdue for approval’.