‘The guilty Are Afraid,’ is the title of a 1957, novel written by popular English novelist, James Hardly Chase.
The gist of the novel is not our interest here, just the title.
The guilty are indeed afraid. When a child does something wrong, whenever that child is called by the parent, his or her mind quickly jumps to the infraction and he or she thinks they have been found out and fear is written all over the child.
This happens in all spheres of life and engagement. Whenever, somebody errs, that person lives in fear of being found out.
Depending on the level of infraction, people go to great lengths to cover their wrongdoing.
That seems to be the scenario playing out with regards to forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The consensus is that the NDDC has been a cesspool of fraud and corruption. Fingers have been pointing in all directions and at different people as being partakers and beneficiaries of the fraud that has grounded the commission.
High profile personalities have been mentioned as key culprits among those who have fleeced the Commission in times past and should be investigated.
In a recent interview, the Acting Executive Director, Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, accused the chairmen of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on the Niger Delta of practically holding the Commission to ransom.
He said: “Let me make it clear, the Hon. Speaker and the President of the Senate are not aware of what the Chairmen of the Committees are doing in the National Assembly. And even members of the Committee are not also aware. It is just one-man squad. Between 2016 and 2019 emergency contracts of over ₦2 trillion were awarded under the supervision of the Chairmen of both Committees. And I have the list of how the contracts were distributed. In the list the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta collected one thousand of those jobs and said he was going to share it among the Senators, but the Senators denied knowledge of such files. We have the records”.
Ojougboh also talked about some contractors collecting as much as ₦1 billion every month as charges for collecting statutory revenues from oil companies, adding “as a matter of fact the allegations are legion and scandalous.”
He went as far as alleging that no action has been taken on the 2020 budget of the Commission, which was submitted to the NASS, because “they are asking for all sorts of things.” He said “How did the budget run into problems? The bureaucracy told us when we came in, that in 2016, there was no budget. 2017, there was no budget. 2018, there was no budget. The budget for 2019 was passed some few weeks ago. What led to it? When a Chairman of Senate Committee came in 2015, he called the bureaucracy of NDDC and told them to insert jobs worth ₦15 billion for him. They went back and complied. But when the budget was sent to him, he said he did not mean ₦15 billion, but ₦150 billion.”
Huge accusations, and all these culminated in the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the behest of nine governors of the Niger Delta region.
The planned audit it would appear has touched a lot of people the wrong way and they are not taking things lying low. They are fighting tooth and nail to kill the audit and discredit anyone in support of it.
Since they cannot attack the President, they seem to have found a soft target in the person of Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, whose ministry supervises the NDDC.
There have been all manner of attacks on the Minister’s person and office from the “accused,” who somehow believe that Akpabio is their problem.
In their desperation, they spew out all manner of lies and half truths, through various media channels.
For instance, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP/Delta state) recently alleged that Senator Akpabio, inserted N500 million worth of projects into the 2017 budget of the NDDC.
He claimed that the contracts inserted in the budget was for the fencing of the Federal Polytechnic, Ukana, Akwa Ibom state, for the sum of N200 million and the fencing of the Federal Government College, Ikot Ekpene, at the cost of N100 million.
Nwaoboshi’s insinuations are calculated attempts to ruin Sen. Akpabio’s long standing history of impeccable character and performance as well as the on-going forensic audit. God will not allow him to triumph.
But the minister has trashed the claim for the lie it is. In his response to the allegation, Akpabio who was serving in the Senate as the minority leader then, said in a letter addressed to the chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, that the projects he requested for inclusion in the NDDC budget were for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, which he represented.
He also educated Sen. Nwaoboshi on the difference between Zonal Intervention Project meant for him as Senate Minority Leader, which has nothing to do with the NDDC budget.
Of course, Nwaoboshi knew the difference, but like a drowning man, he is looking for straws to hang onto, or better still, drown with him.
READ ALSO: NDDC Never Awarded Any Contract To Senator Godswill Akpabio – Official
But he forgets that he is dealing with a man whose antecedents are well known even beyond the shores of his home state of Akwa Ibom and his South-South region. Godswill Akpabio, by no means, is known even beyond the shores of the country for judicious use of state resources as a governor and senator to touch the lives of his people, both indigenes and non-indigenes. He is known for leaving enduring legacies everywhere he goes.
His achievements as governor of Akwa Ibom State for eight years as well as his constituency projects as a senator are still used as reference points both within and outside his state.
A few of such projects would suffice as reminder to the integrity and industry of the man Godswill Akpabio.
Before Akpabio took over office as Governor of Akwa Ibom in 2007, failed and/or abandoned projects were the order of the day in the state and several Local Government Areas of the State were undeveloped in every sense of the word.
For a lot of the projects, huge sums of money had been committed to contractors who collected the money, cleared sites and disappeared into thin air.
One of such projects was the state’s abandoned airport. Prior to becoming the governor, residents of the state used to go to neighbouring states to catch flights to their destinations if they wanted to travel by air. The administration before Akpabio had engaged a contractor, mobilized with huge sum of money, but little or no work was done. Akpabio inherited a cleared mass of land as airport.
He did not let that deter him, rather, he went to work restoring and completing the project and on schedule too. Today, Akwa Ibom has an International Airport reputed to have one of the longest runways in Nigeria.
Again, as the governor of Akwa Ibom, Akpabio undertook a road rehabilitation and construction project that has remained unbeaten.
Under his administration’s, the state was described as “a construction site.” By the end of his eight years, he had constructed well designed brand new roads running into hundreds and rehabilitated several others including federal government owned roads.
Every local government in the state got its share of well-planned and solidly constructed roads and he didn’t stop there, he built about six major flyovers in different parts of the state to ease vehicular movement and enhance the beauty of the state.
Should one talk about the drainage system he built regarding which former President Goodluck Jonathan said: “One of the projects that is quite interesting to me is the drainage system. I think this is the first time I have seen that kind of drainage system and I believe it must be one of the first in the whole continent of Africa,” or the e-library which boasts of about 70 million downloadable e-books and 30 million books in print with in-built alarm system to safeguard the resource materials, or the 30,000 capacity Godswill Akpabio International Stadium (aka Nest of Champions)?
Should one talk about Akpabio’s rural electrification project under which almost all, if not all communities in the state were linked to the national grid?
After his eight years as governor of Akwa Ibom, Akpabio landed at the red chamber and his four years there were as impactful as his years as governor.
His constituency projects brought succour to people across the 10 local government areas that make up the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District which he represented.
Some of the projects executed by the Senator included the construction of market stalls; solar powered borehole; new classroom blocks and the rehabilitation of classroom blocks of existing schools with supply of desks, white boards, teachers’ chairs and tables; construction of town halls and community centres complete with boreholes and generators.
He also gave out 30 vehicles, 40 cargo tricycles, four tractors, 800 generating sets, 100 computer sets and printers.
The list is endless, but these will suffice.
With the same zeal and panache, Akpabio, as supervising minister for the NDDC, is determined to ensure that the commission, lives up to expectations and for that he is being maligned by those who over the years have fed fat on the commission.
This is the time for Mr. President and all progressive minded persons from the Niger Delta region and indeed all who wish to see the ‘Nigerian project’ successfully executed to rally round the minister.
Now is the time for Mr. President to say enough is enough to detractors and distractions. The forensic audit must go on and all found to have benefitted from the years of corruption must be made to face the full weight of the law.
Thankfully, credible voices from the South-South are speaking up in favour of the audit.
Elder statesman and South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark in an open letter to the Senate Leader and Speaker, House of Representatives declared support for the forensic audit and in strong terms condemned the corruption that had gone on in the commission.
He also called on the National Assembly to investigate the accusations levelled against the leadership of the committees on the Niger Delta in both chambers.
He said: “Issues of corruption in the NDDC have become endemic. It was as a result of these complaints, that Mr. President, promptly and courageously appointed the IMC, to supervise the Forensic Audit which he had also set up, to investigate all the alleged corrupt practices that had been perpetuated in the Commission, before a Board will be inaugurated for the Commission. Any attempt to distract from Mr. President’s directive that forensic audit of the NDDC should be carried out, is unacceptable to the people of the Niger Delta. We are solidly behind Mr. President in this his directive.”
“The oil in the Niger Delta was deposited there by God Almighty knowing the type of difficulty and swampy terrain He has put us in. Therefore, for the proceeds of these resources to be fraudulently taken by people who want to egocentrically enrich themselves, is unacceptable and will be resisted. This has gone on for too long and has to stop.
“We will no longer tolerate this criminal exploitation of our resources.”
That’s the way to go. Let Akpabio be!!!
