CHANGE AT WORK: Niger Delta Ministry: Usani Takes Stock, Moves To Get Restive Region Back On Track

If the militants in the Niger Delta currently on a bombing rampage would give peace a chance, there is a basis to hope for concerted efforts to turn around the fortunes of the region, going by the plans in place to implement the Change Agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs under the direction of the suave Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani.
Anyone with a fair knowledge of how events have panned out in the country under the last federal administration would certainly concede that taking on the ministerial mantle at the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs isn’t going to be a tea party. On the evidence unearthed by a technical committee of highly qualified professional set up to wade through the labyrinth of projects awarded in the ministry since its inception in 2009, however, the urbane Usani and the scholarly Minister of State, Niger Delta Affairs, Prof. Claudius Daramola, have apparently picked up the gauntlet by adopting a forensic approach to change things for the better in this critical ministry.
Having applied a fine comb to the difficult assignment which they received on April 8, 2016, Chairman of the Projects Audit Committee, Engineer Yerima Bulama, a retired director in the Federal Civil Service and his committee members could congratulate themselves for a job well done. Presenting the report to Usani in Abuja on Tuesday, August 23, 2016, the soft-spoken Bulama said part of the committee’s discoveries was that about N700 Billion worth of projects were being handled by the ministry since inception, out of which payment of about N400 billion was made, with about N200 billion still required to complete all the projects.
The 12-member Technical Audit Committee, according to Bulama, audited all projects across the nine oil-producing states of the Niger Delta region, alongside consultancy services documents, with the aim of matching contractors’ paper claims with actual work done on site.

The committee found that gross violation of due process characterised the award of contracts in the ministry and that. With representatives of contractors in tow, the committee discovered that 90% of projects across the region was incomplete, despite payment. It observed that some road projects were short and recommended that they be extended with the extra cost taken into consideration. In particular, the committee in particular noted “slight discrepancies” on the length of the important East-West Road in the three sections, which it said should be readjusted. It also discovered a surfeit of duplication of projects by government agencies across the region.
The Bulama committee recommended that the ministry should ensure that future projects pass through proper procurement process. It also recommended that a cost-effective unit be established in the ministry and urged the federal government to guide against duplication of projects by government agencies in the Niger Delta region.
Observing that there was low capacity utilisation in the ministry, Bulama said this should be addressed, stressing that “monitoring and evaluation of projects should be realigned for maximum impact. Nigeria is like a rich father who puts all his money in investments, yet his children are suffering.”

The committee also recommended that some contractors should refund about N6 billion which they collected from the ministry and thereafter neglected to “do the job”.
While receiving the report from the committee, Usani said the audit was not initiated “to witch-hunt anybody but to ensure transparency, accountability and to see that the various projects of the Ministry serve the purposes for which they were put in place, for the benefits of the Niger Delta people.”
Usani said based on inspection of critical projects in the ministry, the ministry found conflicts between claims made to his office. His words: “The origin of this audit committee was based on the discovery that things were not done properly, so the committee members were carefully selected to audit the projects.”
The minister disclosed that the ministry suspended all payments to contractors pending the outcome of the audit report being submitted by the committee.

Assuring that contractors found above board in the report would be paid in due course, Usani stressed that “we did not set up the audit panel to probe anybody, but to get value for money spent. Government is a continuum, abandoned project will not remain abandoned in this ministry. This report will go through second eye view to be sure that any loopholes or omissions are plugged. It is a document to guide this ministry in its work.”
In his remarks at the event, the Minister of State, Niger Delta Affairs, Prof. Claudius Daramola, thanked the committee for a job well done.

Daramola disclosed that all the projects being executed by the Ministry currently were all inherited.
To the amusement of the gathering and a stark revelation on the goings-on in the ministry before the current administration, Daramola recalled how a contractor from Ondo – his home state – attempted to make a false claim over a two-block classroom with a fake picture of the purportedly completed project. However, when the minister attempted to verify the contractor’s paper claims with an on-the-spot assessment, “we were prevented from going to the site. So you can know that nothing was done on the project; he only came to dupe the ministry of N22 million. Thank God that I did not fall for his trick.”
In the same vein, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Alo Willaims Nwankwo, stated that the Ministry thought it wise to inaugurate the technical committee to inspect the quantity and quality of the projects of the Ministry in the Niger Delta region as a result of the determination of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s resolve to ensure that things were done according to the extant rules in the country.

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