Nigeria Content Online

The country is on a spending spree; everywhere
one turns yet another ridiculous budget is to be encountered.

The latest of these budgetary excesses is the
listing of N90 million by the Niger Delta Development Commission in their
annual budget to cater for marriages and funeral donations for staff. This
particular commission has long been associated with budgetary atrocities of
unimaginable magnitude.

The commission, set up in 2000 by the former
president, Olusegun Obasanjo “with the mission of facilitating the rapid, even
and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is
economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and
politically peaceful” sadly cannot be said to have achieved a discernable
success rate in carrying out any of these duties. Yet, billions of naira continues
to be pumped into coffers annually.

While the commission has clearly turned into a
cash cow for a few, the entire region is still the most volatile environment in
our country and a large part of it is still very much underdeveloped.

Already our House of Representatives has allowed
the budget with this questionable amount to pass through a second reading.
Though some members of the House have raised eyebrows at the amount of
N90million for a marriage and funeral allowance for staff, it is obvious some
do not see anything wrong with spending such a sum for such purpose in a region
where it is almost impossible to openly have an elaborate wedding due to fears
about security.

Hitting the nail on the head was Sa’adatu Sani, a
member from Kaduna State asked: “How can we have N90m for marriage alone, when
the problems of Niger Delta have not been solved?” But the cruel irony of this
is lost on the deputy speaker of the House. He rallied support for the allocation
on marriage stating on Tuesday that the budget should be granted on the ground that
the provision was not only for marriage but “bereavement, condolence purse and
transportation”.

Abraham Agbodo, an aide to the NDDC chairman, has
an interesting perspective on the matter: “Budget is about anticipation and
here we deal with human beings. In every organisation, there should be
emotional intelligence, where the subordinates are made provision for in the
event of anything. These are put in a basket from which such funds are
withdrawn when needed,” he explained. Mr. Agbodo’s view of how a parastatal
should function is worthy of further analysis. It says a lot about how the NDDC
views the funds committed to its care for the development of a despoiled delta.

A quick look at the commissions’ recurrent budget
will supply even more evidence. The office of the commission’s managing
director budgets N178.7m for its personnel costs and N350.6m for overhead
costs. The two executive directors for Finance and Project receive allocations
of N264.8m and N256.9m respectively as the total for their personnel and
overhead costs. Add these together, and what do you get: more than a billion of
the Commission’s funds for this year will go into maintaining its senior
executives.

With a recurrent budget like this, it is obvious
that instead of developing Niger Delta, the managers and staff of NDDC are
apparently developing themselves.

These public officials need to be urgently
reminded that the commission was not set up to finance marriages and
funerals.Those billions are meant to save the living, not join them in
matrimony, or inter their corpses.

It is indeed our hope this was a “typographical error”
like the Nigerian Communications Commission’s budget where N800m mysteriously
ballooned into N13 billion.

When there is no accountability, there is bound
to be budgetary padding, fictitious projects and creative manipulation of the
system to defraud the country. The Niger Delta is central to the development
and peace of our country; every kobo that goes to the commission set up to look
after the region should be accounted for. Whoever is found guilty of defrauding
the commission or using it to siphon money to private pockets should not only
be sacked, but also prosecuted, and jailed.