Some months ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his wisdom created Regional Development Commissions, a move many recognized as essential for fostering economic growth, reducing spatial inequalities, and addressing the unique challenges in each region.
To make this new phenomenon work, Mr. President again, expanded the hitherto Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to become the Ministry of Regional Development. 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.
As part of efforts to achieve a shared understanding of the Ministry’s mandate and its coordination role in regional development, the Ministry of Regional Development recently brought together in Lagos, Nigeria, the Chairmen, Managing Directors, Board members and Directors of the Regional Development Commissions alongside the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for a three-day retreat with the Theme ‘’Institutional Coordination for Development.
Speaking at the event, The Minister for Regional Development, Engr. Abubakar Momoh, told the gathering that the retreat was proposed to explore and articulate a sound institutional oversight and collaboration framework, provide clarity of responsibilities and functions that will assist the regional development commissions to focus on people-oriented projects to help address regional disparities, promote economic growth, and improve the quality of life for people in the regions while leveraging regional opportunities to expand intervention in health, education, security and build more capacity.
Indeed, the retreat may have come and gone but not without exposing something new and refreshingly different about how Regional Development Commissions could function as development trigger.
Aside significantly addressing persistent cries of marginalization by virtually all the geo-political zones – a great challenge that kept the nation for decades on the throes of internal crisis and unhealthy reveries- the creation of the Regional Development Commissions by Mr President seeks to cement national unity through healthy, strategic and need based project planting and execution among regions.
This will ultimately lead to the reduction of the burden of responsibility the centre bears as some peculiar socio-economic and infrastructural challenges will now fall within the purview of the regional development Commissions.
More so, critical stakeholders agree that there is the need for the newly established regional development Commissions to understudy the current Governing Board and Management of the NDDC – a federal government interventionist agency created in 2000 by an enabling Act, 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 – to be acquainted with the nitty gritty of running an interventionist agency that caters for the development needs of the people.
And talking about the Niger Delta and the NDDC, when crude oil was discovered in the region more than 50 years ago, the people of the region could not have imagined that they would bear the brunt of the exploring country’s main source of revenue. The people must have expected that the exploitation of the rich natural resources they have in their environment would have brought them development and prosperity. But alas, it has been a very painful opposite
Essentially, it is not as if past administrations in the country did not, at different times, made efforts to address the region’s challenges but noble as those efforts were, considering the level of underdevelopment in the region, they appeared too insignificant and short of what was required to care for the region’s development and therefore, a far cry from what was needed to exorcise the ghost of youth unemployment, restiveness and under development in the region.
This ugly narrative persisted in the face of concerns raised by the global community that was not convinced that what past administrations did was the best way to solve the problem of the region.
Understandably, there is some truth in those concerns as expressed just as there is presently, a silver lining on the horizon. What we have today is the exact opposite! Niger Deltans of goodwill are equally of the view that what the region is experiencing this time around may no longer be the second half of a recurring circle, but rather the beginning of something new and different.
Aside from the fact that the new NDDC governing board and management enjoy a healthy synergy and robust relationship with critical stakeholders within the region, there are also concerted efforts to reinvent the Niger Delta region via youth empowerment, human capital development and democratized infrastructural provisions.
Arguably, the policy thrust and programmes of the NDDC governing board and management amply qualify as development-based.This is, however, not to say that the NDDC is now a cure- all drug. There are still a lot the board and management need to do to lead the region into the Proverbial el Dorado.
The ongoing-life changing developmental strides in the region are commendable and the Governing Board and Management should be given the necessary support so that this project will not suffer abandonment like those before them.
Prominent among these projects, programmes and initiatives include, namely; Building Partnerships, Lighting Up the Niger Delta region, Sustainable Livelihood, Improved Youth Capacity and Skills Base, Efficient and cost-effective projects, Project Hope for Renewed Hope, Carbon Emission Reduction, Stakeholder Engagement, Effective and Professional Workforce, Improved Peace and Security among others.
From what development professionals are saying, a programme is said to be development-based, when such a programme entails an all-encompassing improvement, a process that builds on itself and involves both individuals and social change. It requires growth and structural change, with some measures of distributive equity, modernization in social and cultural attitudes, a degree of political transformation and stability, an improvement in health and education so that population growth stabilizes, and an increase in urban living and employment.
Experts agree that all the NDDC projects and programmes were crafted in line with the above initiatives.
The Commission’s scheme known as Holistic Opportunities, Projects and Engagement, (HOPE) exemplifies this. It is primed to provide a platform to empower youths of the region on a sustainable basis, designed to create a comprehensive resources database of the youth population of the Niger Delta region to enable NDDC see clearly what the youths want in their strive for sustainability in conformity with international best practices and development.
The project ‘HOPE’ initiative is positioned to create youth employment opportunities, especially in agriculture through support to small-holder farmers to ensure operational growth while shifting from traditional to mechanized farming methods. Because of the arable wetlands, rainfalls and other favourable ecological factors to plant various crops and vegetables at least four times within a farming season, the Commission is proactively moving away from the oil economy to the agricultural sector which can accommodate our youths in large numbers.
For me, NDDC’s solutions to youth unemployment and the development of a climate for a sustainable future and innovation are the necessary tools for promoting the critical thrust of governance and maximizing the benefits citizens derive from governance.
For example, talking about youth unemployment in Nigeria, a report recently puts it this way: “We are in a dire state of strait because unemployment has diverse implications. Security-wise, a large unemployed youth population is a threat to the security of the few that are employed. Any transformation agenda that does not have job creation at the centre of its programme will take us nowhere”.
As we know, youth challenge cuts across, regions, religions, and tribes, and has in the past led to the proliferation of ethnic militia as well as youth restiveness across the country. What the above information tells us as a nation is that the NDDC must be supported as it serves as a model and template for other interventionist agencies.
