A cursory look at the prevailing peace and ongoing coordinated socio-infrastructural development in the Niger Delta region, brings to mind the time-honoured leadership propositions by two iconic and globally respected leadership experts who are also authors – Jim Collins and Steven Bartlett.
In his book “Good to Great”, Collins emphasized that great leaders prioritize finding the right people for their team before focusing on strategy or vision. This according to him involves getting the “right people on the bus” and in the correct seats, ensuring everyone is a suitable fit for the company’s values, culture, and goals, as a strong team is essential for achieving greatness. And for Bartlett, the most important overarching principle for anyone hoping to achieve a long-term business goal is to create a culture that is sustainable; where people are authentically engaged with a mission they care about; trusted with a high degree of autonomy; sufficiently challenged in their work; given a sense of forward motion and progress; and surrounded by a caring, supportive group of people that they love to work with and that provide them with psychological safety.
Without wasting or mincing words, it is evident that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recognizes that a strong team is essential for achieving greatness and has therefore; adopted Collins and Bartlett’s leadership principles by planting the right people on the jobs to support him achieve his administration’s goals in line with his vision for the country.
This explains why the President carefully selected competent, result-oriented and passionate team- Management and Board to run the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The result is the unprecedented socio-economic, infrastructural and human capital development currently being witnessed in the region.
This piece makes bold to say that the early indication of Mr. President’s resolve to give special attention to the Niger Delta was signposted by his prompt constitution of the Governing Board and Management of the NDDC few months after taking office with Mr. Chiedu Ebie as Board Chairman and Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, a seasoned administrator as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.
The Board Chairman, Barrister Ebie is a tested performer and an achiever; he is a technocrat and reformer whose era as Delta state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education and Secretary to the State Government (SSG) is still being referenced till date.
To further expand the frontiers of development in the region, Mr. President again reconfigured the hitherto Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to become the Ministry of Regional Development with Engr. Abubakar Momoh, as the Minister. Analysts believe that the Federal Government’s action represents a prudent strategy for enhancing responsible governance of the various commissions established to drive development in the country’s six geopolitical zones.
For the records, before the advent of President Tinubu’s government and his appointments of these worthy Niger Deltans, the Niger Delta region was perceived by many as backward and environmentally degraded. This was occasioned by years of crude oil exploration, exploitation and production. The Niger Delta means different things to different people. Some view it as a region where communal right to a clean environment and access to clean water supplies are luxury and are being violated.
To others, it symbolizes a location where the government employs a non-participatory approach to development that strips the people of their sense of ownership over their own issues; where the government and other Nigerians failed to see the problem of the Niger Delta as a national one and not restricted to the region.
To the rest, it is a zone where fierce unrest has lingered over ownership and control of oil resources. And as a direct result, a long dark shadow has been cast on efforts to improve the wellbeing and economic development of the region and its people.
However, looking at recent developments in the region, it is evident that the narrative is changing just as NDDC, that a few years ago ‘enjoyed’ more burden than goodwill and received devastating reputational blows than applause, is today celebrated.
Recent reports find amity between the present NDDC governing board and people-focused projects/programmes.
Notably, leaders of ethnic nationalities, professional bodies, and critical stakeholders from the Niger Delta region recently applauded the NDDC for its massive electrification of rural communities through the Light Up the Niger Delta project. This attests to the new dawn the region now enjoys.
The National Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, radiated with satisfaction when he led leaders of various groups to meet with the NDDC management team at the commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
In an address he read on behalf of the visiting delegation, Senator Ibok-Essien said that the leaders were delighted by the efforts of the NDDC to light up communities across the Niger Delta states, noting that it would help in fighting criminality in the region.
“The rural electrification projects have not only enhanced the aesthetics of these areas but also contributed to reducing nocturnal security challenges. We encourage the Commission to extend this initiative to all communities and ensure the training of local manpower for the effective maintenance of these facilities.
Said the PANDEF delegation: “We also appreciate the Commission’s efforts in road construction and rehabilitation, as well as human resources development through educational scholarships, women and youth development programmes, vocational and skills acquisition initiatives”
We are glad to note the successes you have recorded, such as your Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), on shared aspirations and on corporate governance with KPMG. We do hope to see that these interactions and engagements will generate positive fruits of development soonest.”
Comparatively, when one juxtaposes the region’s developmental impasse experienced years ago, with the ongoing efforts by the present leadership to offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta Region and to facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful, as stipulated by the Act establishing the agency, one thing stands out: It is leadership that makes the difference!
In view of the above, I believe that it will be highly rewarding if the nation carries out a re-evaluation of roles leaders play in the socio-economic development of not just the region but the nation as a whole.
This is not only imperative but also highlights Nigeria’s need for leaders with visions and plans; leaders who are ready to sacrifice and lead by example and assist re-enact at all strata of government similar developmental strides ongoing at NDDC.
Aside from elements who hitherto dominated the region’s socio-political discourse but did nothing for the region have today ended in the dustbin of history, all critical stakeholders have now morphed from complaint to applaud the NDDC leadership for creating harmony among ethnic groups within the region and for bringing visible development. One useful lesson we must not allow to go with the winds is that nations fail not necessarily because of its geographical location or lack of mineral resources but primarily because leaders in charge make decisions that engineer poverty, as everything starts and ends with leadership’.
Two factors are, in my opinion, working in favour of the NDDC’s governing board and management.
First, is their profound recognition that on the road of survival and extinction, leadership holds the key.
Such understanding goes a long way to signify that one will either be victorious or defeated. The second is closely related to the first and elaborates the governing board’s understanding that ‘public order, economic and social progress and prosperity is not the natural order of things but depend on the ceaseless efforts and attention from effective government.
This should be another leadership lesson for all as the nation continues with its quest for building a Nigeria of our dreams where peace, unity and enduring development shall reign supreme.
