Why is the Jonathan led - PDP using the name of my beloved town, Igbanke to steal from the federal coffers. The Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs claimed it carried out a Land Reclamation and Erosion Control project at Igbonto-Igbanke. It also boasted that the project has been 85% completed. However, as of today, Thursday, 8th January, 2015 no such project exists in Igbanke. Its a BIG SHAME that President Jonathans government also displayed project site that is not Igbanke. Elder GodsDay Orubebe and the Niger Delta Restoration Project Elder GodsDay Orubebe and the Niger Delta Restoration Project July 23, 2012 inShare Written by Jim Pressman The shoulders of Elder Godsday Orubebe, second Minister in charge of the new Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs are indeed broad. He also has his job cut out for him: created in September 2008 with operations commencing in February, 2009 under the pioneer minister, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Obong Ufot Ekaete, the mandate of the Ministry is to formulate and execute programmes, projects and policies for the development and security in the nine states of the Niger Delta region, namely Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers states. The Ministry also has the responsibility to coordinate the activities of Agencies, Communities, Donors and other stakeholders involved in the development of the region. However, funding may yet be the bane of the ministry’s ability or otherwise to meet its own deadlines for completion of many of its projects, chief among which is what the minister described as “the flagship of its infrastructure projects is the dualization of the East-West Road, inherited from the Federal Ministry of Works since 2009. When the new ministry took it over the job was at 10% completion. As the minister explained to the concerned South-South monarchs led by the Jaja of Opobo His Majesty King Douglas Jaja, who had come to meet Elder Orubebe and his Management team to find out what is holding the project down, work is at 50 per cent completion, with some 43 bridges along the route substantially completed. The minister says the current cost of the East-West road project is close to N350billion, while to-date a total of nearly N134billion has been expending even as an outstanding liability of over N24 billion remains. The minister has been requested by the visiting monarchs to convene another, enlarged Stakeholders’ meeting of traditional rulers, legislators and other interest groups from the Niger Delta to discuss and dictate their pressing needs for consideration in subsequent budgets as a way of enhancing a bottoms-up approach to development of the area. The project which commenced in 2006 and was initially slated for completion in 2010 has suffered perennial funding constraint, such that completion date has had to change many times. By the last count before the meeting with the region’s monarchs in Abuja, 2013 had been fixed for concluding work. However since the finance constraints persist, a new date of December 2014 was being considered, but even at that, except something drastic is done urgently to shore up implementation cash flow, that date too as Orubebe says, “is also being threatened by inadequate funding” and still not be delivery date. The minister is therefore in the middle of frantic efforts, given the importance of the road to development in the region in particular and Nigeria in general, to secure alternative sources of funding. To be able to meet the 2014 new date, the ministry is looking at the Infrastructure Bank Plc. (the old Urban development Bank of Nigeria), to act as Transaction Advisor and Finance Arranger (TAFA) and work with the ministry as well as the Ministry of Finance for the goal of sourcing alternative funding for the completion of the East-West Road Project. As if the ministry did not have enough on its plate as it were, on hearing the mooting of the new source of project funding, threats of violent opposition to it were engineered by some youths in the area which stalled further consideration. Although the minister of Niger Delta Affairs told the Royal Fathers about other on-going projects such as nine Skills Acquisition Centres in the areas of Oil and Gas, Commerce, Tourism, Entertainment Maritime business and Agriculture. Other such centres in Imo, Cross River, Rivers and Bayelsa states are scheduled for completion this year. The monarchs also left Orubebe with a copy of the report of their 2011 South-South Monarchs’ Retreat. Functions of the Ministry include: overseeing the implementation of Government policies on the development and security of the Niger Delta region; coordinating the formulation of the Development Plan for the region;formulating policies and programmes for youth mobilization and empowerment in the Niger Delta region; facilitating Private Sector involvement in the region;liaising with oil companies operating in the region to ensure environmental protection and pollution control; organizing human capacity development as well as skills acquisition programmes for the youths; take adequate measures to ensure peace, stability and security with a view to enhancing the economic potentials of the area, and to supervise the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) In consonance with its mandate, the priority areas of projects and programmes of the Ministry are as follows:road construction; construction of Skills Acquisition Centres; Water Supply and Electrification Projects;Housing Scheme;Environmental Protection and Remediation Initiatives;Skills Acquisition Training (Non-militants); Agricultural and Industrial Development Programmes; andSecurity.Despite the many challenges and limitations, the ministry has managed to achieve quite a lot, among which are the following: The Ministry by its mandate intervened significantly through routinely organized security and consultative meetings to sustain peace and security in the region. This has resulted in the increase in oil production from pre-Amnesty level of 700,000 bpd to the current level of 2,500,000 bpd; Work is progressing on the East-West Road. The Ministry took over the project from the Ministry of Works about two years ago at 10% level of completion. The Ministry has now attained over 50% level of completion. Every effort is being made to complete the project by December, 2013; The Ministry is also constructing 11 other roads spread across the 9 States. The roads which are at various levels of completion are: *Re-Construction of Elele – Owerri Road (Rivers – Imo State) – 33.12% *Obehia – Akwete-Etinan Road (Abia and Akwa Ibom States) Sects. I & II – 21% *Rehabilitation of Okpuala-Iguruta Road (Imo and Rivers States: 53km) Phase I – 22% *Benin Abraka Road (Edo and Delta States: 88.58km) Phase I – 29.4% *Orhorhor-Odorubuo Kpakama-Bomadi Road (Delta/Bayelsa/Rivers States -32km) Phase I – 21% *Gbaregolor-Ogriagbene Road, Delta State – 30% *The construction of 360 units of Housing Projects in the 9 States has reached about 55% level of completion; *The construction work on Skills Acquisition Centres in each of the nine states of the Niger Delta is at various stages of completion. The Centres are meant to train youths to acquire skills to enable them work in various sectors of the national economy including Oil and Gas, Commerce, Agriculture, ICT, Construction, Tourism and Marine; *Environmental Projects *Land Reclamation/Shoreline Protection Project in Kurutie, Gbaramatu Clan, Warri South LGA in Delta State – 71% completion *Idumuje-Unor Erosion Control Project, Delta State – 70% completion; *Land Reclamation and Erosion Control Works, Igbonton – Igbanke and Oyomo/Okhelen – Awo Road, Uromi, Edo State – 85% completion; *Land Reclamation and Erosion Control Works at IbakangNsit-IkotEkpo- Unyene Road, NsitAttai in AkwaIbom State – 48% completion; *Land Reclamation and Erosion Control Works, Essien Town- Ekorinin Community, Cross River State – 35% completion; *Canalization of Odobou-Ogbobagbene Creek, Burutu LGA, Delta State – 30% completion; *Consultancies for 13 (thirteen) land reclamation/shoreline protection/erosion control projects – 70% completion. *Remediation, Rehabilitation and Restoration of the Oil Impacted Site at Stubbs Creek, Eket, Akwa Ibom State – 26% completion. *701 non-militant youths have been trained both locally and overseas by the Ministry as follows: – Oil and Gas (341); – Maritime (270); and – Agriculture (90). Niger Delta Collaborative Development Framework (NDCDF)The Ministry has embarked on a comprehensive and coherent programme of investment in the social and public sectors of the various communities of the Niger Delta. The programme is called the Niger Delta Collaborative Development Framework (NDCDF). The Collaborative Development Framework articulates and spells out the future intervention measures for the Niger Delta in consonance with the Niger Delta Master Plan and Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020. The Niger Delta Collaborative Development Framework (NDCDF) is being developed by the Ministry and representatives of development Partners including UNDP, World Bank, USAID, EU and DFID as well as the Embassy of The Netherlands under the coordination of the UNDP. The NDCDF has three broad but integrated components; namely: (i) Public Sector Investment Programme which covers large infrastructure development and reconstruction; (ii) Social Sector Investment Programme which focuses on investment in social sector, covering Community-based development, Community-recovery process and Community-security stabilization measures generation; and (iii) Institutional capacity and Multi-stakeholder Trust Fund which delineates the governance structure and financial mechanism for the Programme. The essence and import of theNDCDF initiative is to bring together all our international development partners, donor agencies and stakeholders operating in the Niger Delta region to formulate a common development framework funded through a common basket of resources for the development of the region. The NDCDF is expected ensure accountability and prudent management of resources through broad-based stakeholder participation in the implementation process. It will also enhance the coordination mechanism in support of rationalized programme intervention. The firm of consultants engaged to design the Framework has just concluded the assignment. The report will be presented to the Governors of the nine states of the Niger Delta and other stakeholders in June, 2012. The Ministry is also embarking on the establishment of Industrial Parks in the region. After visiting the Ostim Organized Industrial Parks in Ankara, Turkey, the Ministry was encouraged to replicate the Turkey Industrial Parks model in the Niger Delta region. The industrial Parks consist of 5,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that manufacture and produce goods and services in over 100 different sectors/areas of the economy. The industrial zone provides its own infrastructure including energy needs of over 35 MW of electricity. The success story of the Ostim organized industrial parks has been replicated in Russia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many parts of Central Asia through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. The Ministry has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ostim of Turkey for the establishment of industrial parks in the Niger Delta. The Ministry has established the Council on Niger Delta to address the challenges posed by the multiplicity of development actors trying to provide services in the region. This will enable the Ministry to effectively carry out its mandate of coordinating development initiatives in the region and also assist in engendering consensus among the various stakeholders. When established, the Industrial Parks, expected to house over 5,000 SMEs, will meet the following objectives: • create employment for thousands of youths in the region, promote rural growth, • create an enabling environment that boosts production and economic growth, • promotes local content policy, and • generates enormous income for government. This is one of the ways by which jobs could be generated for the youths that are currently being trained in different skills both within and outside the country. Speaking on the way forward, Elder Orubebe saysit is has become inevitable to source for alternative funding for the projects and programmes of the Ministry in view of the paucity of budgetary allocation. The Ministry is adopting the Public Private Partnership arrangement for the implementation of its Road and Rail infrastructure, Environment, Waterways and Skills Acquisition projects. Such projects and programmes have already been identified and the ministry’s private sector partners have shown keen interest in the projects. The Ministry’s budgetary allocation and releases have been grossly inadequate and dwindling. In 2009, total release was N94 billion, N58.8 billion in 2010 and N36.4 billion in 2011. In 2012, total appropriation is N57 billion out of which N16 billion has already been released. The terrain in most parts of the region makes infrastructural development a difficult task. High costs of projects and technology required for infrastructure projects as a result of the terrain in the region constitute a serious challenge. Although youth restiveness and insecurity in the region can be said to have drasticallyabated, intermittent disruption of projects by the youths and excessive demands on contractors by communities and individuals still constitute a serious problem. This situation had led to work stoppages. As the minister rightly pointed out in his score-card brief, “the challenges in the region are quite enormous and require huge resources which government alone cannot bear. It is pertinent to note that the Ministry has a framework for the development of the Niger Delta. However, the main impediment is absence of real funding to accelerate the needed development in the Niger Delta.”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:39:38 +0000
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