Scorecard of NDDC Rep Ondo State: a case study of failed representation.
Dayo Awotula.
Representation in the board of Niger Delta Development Commission,NDDC, is not a ceremonial appointment. The Federal Government appoints the board members based on the recommendation of stakeholders from the mandate areas.Thus, membership of the board of the interventionist agency is meant to be a serious assignment to plan, to deliver, and to elevate communities through infrastructure, education, and innovation as a way of appreciating and compensating the oil producing communities which face environmental challenges due to exploration activities beneath their land.
In Ondo State, the record of Hon. Otito Atikase who represents the state on the NDDC Board suggests the opposite of his beats, terms and rules of engagement.
Before I go ahead, I say without equivocation that my x- ray of his activities is hinged on my concern as an Ilaje person whose land contributes immensely to the GDP of Nigeria from the crude oil Providence has kept under the coastal earth land.
Atikase’s documented achievements since his assumption of office at the behest of the Federal Govt to represent the Niger Delta communities of Ondo State are narrow, often bordering on showmanship and far from the scale the commission was designed to address.
Let us assume that for the sake of intervention an NDDC Board member will be giddy about providing relief materials and aid to his people; without any sense of bias, together let us interrogate Hon.Atikase’s understanding of providing relief and succour to his Ilaje mandate area of NDDC.
Food Distribution: Hon Atikase was seen distributing 25kg bags of beans, vegetable oil, and cartons of noodles at Igbokoda. To say the least, this is a relief gesture more common in short-term as charity than to be seen in long-term as a development stride. We are aware of what others in Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa attract in terms of intervention to their mandate areas.
Mobility Aids: Our Ilaje NDDC Rep was seen distributing 20 wheelchairs and crutches, many of them analogue models that have been abandoned elsewhere. If all his refined thought process can gift the people of Ilaje nation as many as they are is 20 antiquated wheel chairs, it says a lot about how he values people living with disabilities across Ilajje land. This tokenism in his estimate measured up as far as considering the plight of those who are physically challenged in the area. Truth is if people don’t talk to condemn giving out such embarrassing offer as all the almighty NDDC can afford for Ilaje, it will go into the records as precedent and next time some shallow minded representative can even come with 10 wheelchairs as their own interventionist stride. Ilaje is not a nation of beggars where all NDDC can offer such huge population is 20 wheelchairs. If our leadership is failing before our very eyes and we cannot call him to order, in his narrow mindedness, he will conclude with his petty offering like that of a stingy donor of some sheepish sacrifice to Malokun, that he has put the wool over the people’s face. A data compliant Representative is supposed to know that across Ilaje nation, people living with disabilities could not have been some piecemeal 20 persons but intellectual laziness , indifference and lack of the zeal to offer genuine and altruistic intervention to the masses will make our Representative to come to town with media razzmatazz to distribute 20 wheelchairs and crutches. It is a reflection of an embarrassing low in quality representation.
Girl Child Initiative: It is instructive that such a lofty program to nurture and empower young girls under our ‘able leader’ has remained unmeasured. We dare ask Hon. Atikase how well has he managed this scheme in the NDDC mandate area of Ondo State? It is not about grandstanding, NDDC has scheme to nurture the girl child in its mandate area . Has our Representative brought home a pilot project of this lofty scheme?
Street Lights: While one applauds the fact that there is Solar installations in select Ilaje communities, some communities do not benefit at all. Is solar installation expected to be distributed discriminately? What is intervention that does not go round the people across the communities considered to be under the mandate spread?
Road Construction: Report has it that so far in Hon
Atikase’s tenure, a one-kilometer stretch of road construction leading to his Alagbaka residence stands out as one of his glowing achievement.
In all of these, such strides if they can be so called lack depth and fall short of NDDC’s founding mission — to address the structural and economic deficits of the Niger Delta. What should be bold programs for infrastructure development , housing, water systems, and youth empowerment have instead been reduced to giveaways and token gestures advertised on huge bill boards signposting tokenism for all the worthy projections of government for the mandate area.
Critics call it disheartening, others call it shameful. Either way, the issue is the same: a promising youth elevated to office, yet unwilling or unable to deliver! Worse, the tools provided to the physically challenged reflect regression, not progress — relics of a bygone era, when technology already offers powered, rechargeable alternatives.
The contrast with Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo is stark. It is instructive that the same NDDC Rep from Ilaje has written a long epistle to analyse the streaks of achievement by another youthful Minister from Ondo State , Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, who has been ranked among Nigeria’s most effective Ministers and described as a reformer and a builder who is showing what leadership in public space should look like. Atikase, by comparison, seems trapped in self-interest , little give aways and small-scale optics. By his own assessment and review of Bunmi Tunji Ojo as a Minister with super achievements in two years, Hon.Atikase, who equally occupies a lofty position in this government as an NDDC Rep deemed his own shine by failing to measure up to standard and people’s expectation.
The lesson is not abstract: Political representation is neither inherited nor is it a beat for showmanship.It is a mandate to serve, a call to service and a template to build a future where people can confidently point out that one has all that it takes to be called upon for a higher service. Where leaders fail to improve themselves, fail to measure up to the scale of responsibility, the public suffers the consequences and it is worse in oil producing communities where people are already subjected to all manner of environmental degradation. It is for this purpose that an NDDC Rep who is worth such office should ensure that interventionist projects attracted to the area are of legacy models that can assuage the challenge of the people.
For Hon. Otito Atikase, the scorecard is a mirror and it reflects failure. The good thing is that there is still room for improvement if pride , indifference, self centeredness and cathedral size ego will not stand in the way of caring heart leadership and representation.
