A CASE STUDY OF NDDC AND THE ABANDONED NIGER DELTA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT MASTER PLAN (NDRDMP)
By Ebi Dressman
The concept of regional planning was first introduced by Patrick Geddes who began to develop his broader philosophy of regional planning in his 1915 seminal book, Cities in Evolution: An introduction to Town Planning Movement and the Study of Civics. He put forward a synoptic vision of place, work and folk to explain the symbiotic relationship between economic and socio-cultural well-being. Through his planning work of the Edinburgh Zoological Garden, he illustrated the complex interactions between human systems and the natural environment, which led to his idea of developing regional planning models to respond to these complex conditions (Thompson, 2004). To him, the spatial contexts of past and present were critical to planning as city development should be seen as part of a wider spatial network of the city and the surrounding countryside.
Sparked by the ideas of Geddes, Lewis Mumford advanced a conception of regional development by taking an organic, ecological planning approach that aimed to balance the needs of the social world with those of the natural ecosystem. This regional approach to planning led to the establishment of the Regional Planning Association of America and the regional city idea was advocated by Mumford, Clarence Stein, and other members in the 1920s (Meyers, 1998).
Regional planning may be defined as the integrated management of the economic, social, and physical resources of a spatially bounded area. Regional plans and policies have been proposed and carried out since the beginnings of civilized settlement. In the modern era, regional plans have been promulgated for sub-national, multi-jurisdictional areas such as the Niger Delta region. Comprehensive regional plans have also been devised for a nucleated urban areas and for open regions such as the Niger Delta Region. Because, for historical reasons, regions often lack governmental organization congruent with their natural or economic characteristics, the realization of regional planning goals, policies, and projects has often been constrained or limited like what the Niger Delta region is experiencing today.
Nevertheless, significant instances of a successful implementation of regional plans or elements of plans can be cited. Example is the Greater London, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Beijing all have benefited from past efforts at regional planning. In an increasingly interdependent world faced with environmental degradation, economic development needs, and social inqualities, there is a growing awareness of the need for effective regional planning in the form of integrated regional resource management. But pervasive fragmentation of political jurisdictions, dominance of short-term over long-term decision-making, the frequent absence of consensus on goals or future visions still present formidable obstacles and excessive corruption affect the realization of regional planning in both developed and developing nations like ours. Powerful new tools for data management and monitoring, such as geographic information systems promise to be of considerable help in overcoming these barriers to effective regional planning. However, these tools are no substitute for imaginative planning, political will, and a broad agreement on what future regions can and should become.
Inline with this, a development roadmap of the oil rich Niger Delta Region was developed. The Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRDMP) was developed shortly after the establishment of the commission in 2000, which was estimated to cost about $50 billion over a 15years span. But nearly 21 years down the memory lane, the commission has not been able to successfully implement and execute this master plan.
The commission was created in 2000 by the then Olusegun Obasanjo led administration to replace the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) saddled with the responsibility to develope the region in the area of infrastructure and that of human capital development which included the formulation of policies and guidelines for the development of the entire Niger Delta region.
The commission was also mandated to survey the Niger Delta region in order to ascertain clear measures necessary to promote the physical and socio-economic development of the region and also prepare master plans with a clear design to promote the physical development of the region.
Also saddled with the responsibility of tackling the ecological and environmental problems that arises from the exploration of oil activities in the region and come up with a possible solution on how the federal government and the various Governments of the members states can prevent and control oil spillages, gas flaring and environmental pollution as well as liaising with the various oil and gas producing firms on all matters of pollution, prevention and control.
The contents of the master plan is anchored on four major pillars namely;
- Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR)
- Infrastructure and Economic development
- Environmental protection
- Involvement of host communities in the protection of assets and their inclusion in the sharing of oil proceeds.
While the first pillar, DDRR, can be said to have successfully executed 70% during the Yar’Adua and up to Jonathan’s and the Buhari led administrations, but not much can be said of the other three pillars since then.
When the commission was established, its raised the hopes of the people of the region with the mandate to speed up the development of the region and possibly free from the threatening environmental hazards arising from the oil and gas exploration activities by the multi-national oil firms.
This is the region that contributes 70% of government’s revenue and 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings but still suffering from developmental neglect.
According to BudgIT Nigeria, a civic technological organisation involved in transparency, citizen engagement and accountability activism reported that since the establishment of the commission in 2000, the commission has received over N15 trillion for projects in the region but yet the commission has failed to achieve the Niger Delta Regional Development Masterplan which is the roadmap to the development of the oil rich Niger Delta region.
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After so many years, this master plan which cost billions of Naira just for the design alone is still lying fallow at the office of the commission while those saddled with the responsibilities to oversee the affairs of the commission continued to feast on the funds meant for implementation and execution of this master plan.
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