NDDC Board: Senate Returns List To Buhari *Rivers Senator, Others Insist On 2019 Confirmed Nominees
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There are signals that the senate may have returned to the president, Muhammadu Buhari, the list of nominees recently sent to it for confirmation, over glaring errors and omissions. This is coming amidst protestations by some stakeholders who insist that the president cannot abandon the list of nominees sent to and confirmed by the senate in 2019.
Last week on the floor of the senate, Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, had raised the concern that Delta State was not fully represented on the board of the NDDC. The list had no representation for Delta State as stipulated in the NDDC Act.
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This aside, the positions of Executive Director, Finance and Administration, EDFA, which was supposed to go to Akwa Ibom State, rather went to Edo State, while the position of Executive Director, Projects, went to Ondo State instead of Rivers State.
Senator Thompson Sekibo from Rivers State had also drawn the attention of the senate to the list of nominees cleared by the National Assembly in 2019. The confirmed nominees were waiting for their inauguration when the then minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio came up with the forensic audit theory and halted their inauguration.
Sekibo insisted that the proper thing to do was for the senate to stick to the names it cleared in 2019, to earn the respect of Nigerians. The senate president, Ahmad Lawan had assured Omo-Agege, that the attention of the executive would be drawn to the issue before the parliament would start the screening exercise and that the concerns raised by Sekibo would also be addressed.
Days after, TNN learnt that the senate had actually returned the list to The Presidency for a review. It was not clear to what extent the list would be reviewed. But protests have not ceased since last week when the new list was read on the floor of the senate.
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For example, the Niger Delta Transparency Group (NDTG) described President Muhammadu Buhari’s new list of nominees as unnecessary and an indication of broken promises.
In a statement by its National President, Chief Adonye Ebimini, the group noted with “dismay that of the 15 names submitted to the Senate for screening to become board members of the commission, only two members from the earlier board personally nominated by President Buhari in October 2019 and confirmed by the Senate since November 2019, and who were promised to be on standby for the completion of the commission’s forensic audit, were re-appointed in the newly constituted board.”
NDTG recalled that President Muhamnadu Buhari had forwarded to the Senate for confirmation the appointment of a board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) via a letter dated 18th October, 2019.
NDTG however noted that after the nominees were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on the 5th of November 2019, “President Buhari asked that the inauguration of the Board should be put on hold pending the completion of the forensic audit, for which an Interim Management Committee was appointed for the NDDC.”
Ebimini stated that “the board members nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari for the NDDC in October 2019 were also vetted by all relevant agencies of the federal government following which they were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on November 5, 2019.”
According to the group, President Buhari had “restated his commitment to inaugurate the board on the completion of the forensic audit, which commitment he made on July 28, 2022 while declaring open a retreat for management of the ministry of Niger Delta affairs and NDDC at the state house banquet hall, Presidential villa, Aso Rock, Abuja.”
Another lawmaker, Mr Kolade Akinjo, from the Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency of Ondo State has been pushing for the rejection of the new list by the senate because the nomination was against the NDDC Act.
Akinjo said Mr Charles Ogunmola, who is from Owo Local Government Area and nominated as the EDP, was not from any of the oil-producing communities in Ondo South, especially in Ilaje and Ese-Odo local council areas.
The lawmaker said while he acknowledged the power of the President to nominate for an appointment on the Board of NDDC, he said such nomination must be in tandem with relevant provisions of the Act establishing the Commission.
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He reminded the senate that it rejected a nominee, Adetokunbo Ajasin, in 2016, when his nomination was deemed to have been against the Act establishing the commission.The current nominee, Mr Ogunmola, whose nomination is generating controversy, according to the lawmaker, is from the same Owo LGA as the one rejected by the Senate in 2016 for the same reasons.
In his letter to the senate president, he said “this letter seeks to draw the attention of your Excellency to the erroneous nomination of Mr. Charles Ogunmola as nominee for the position of Executive Director of Projects on the Board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the President and Commander in-Chief of Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari while exercising his power pursuant to Section 2(2)(a) of the NDDC Act and to urgently notify the Senate of our rightful and lawful rejection of the said nomination on the ground that such is not in compliance with the provision of Section 12(1) of the enabling aforementioned Act.
“We are fully armed with the knowledge of the power of the President to nominate for an appointment on the Board of Niger Delta Development Commission but such nomination must be in tandem with relevant provisions of the Act establishing the Commission.
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“It is important to note that the relevant provision, precisely Section 12(1)(b), NDDC Act which carries the operative clause – “…who shall be an indigene of oil producing area” was deliberately inserted by the draftsmen to get rid of any ambiguity or mischief that could arise from the interpretation of the Section.
“The word ‘shall’ makes the appointment mandatory and the phrase “an indigene of oil producing area” makes the appointment exclusively limited to oil producing areas and not the entire state. In the interpretation of statutes, where words of a statute are clear and unambiguous, they are to be given their ordinary and literal meanings. Also, in rules of interpretation, practically, the express mention of one thing is the exclusion of the other not mentioned. Here, the express mention of “an indigene of oil producing area” is the exclusion of others, including an indigene of Ondo state, not mentioned.
“Undoubtedly, Mr. Charles Ogunmola, an indigene of Owo in Owo Local Government Area, a non-oil-producing area in Ondo North Senatorial district of Ondo State, is not qualified for nomination as Executive Director. Although for the record, Mr Charles Ogunmola is eminently qualified for appointment as representative of South West, if the Act so permits, but he is clearly not eligible for appointment as Executive Director because he is not an indigene of an oil-producing area as mandatorily required by Section 12(1)(b) of NDDC Act.”
TNN reached the minister of Niger Delta Affairs on Sunday night via a whatsapp message for confirmation of the story, but he did not respond to the messages, even though he had read them. But a member of the 9th National Assembly told TNN that the list may have been returned in line with the promise of the senate president that the attention of the executive would be drawn
