NIGER-DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) AND ITS CHALLENGES TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION: AN ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The Niger Delta is a predominately rural settlement with small and scattered hamlets comprising eighty percent of the population living in largely rural communities within dispersed and linear village settlements remaining underdeveloped and unplanned, despite various attempts made by the federal government of Nigeria such as the establishment of Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) and later the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) which have moderated the crisis but remain inadequate and ineffective, epitomized by insecurity. This paper investigated the impact of NDDC projects on rural transformation by identifying the rural development projects implemented, their distribution, impact, level of community participation, and sustainability. The Niger Delta Region covered by NDDC are the nine states in Nigeria as follows: Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Rivers, Ondo, Imo, Abia and Edo States but this study concentrated on Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States. For this paper, the Integrated Rural Development Model was used. It was propounded by Abasiekong (1981) and redesigned and developed by Hallet (1996). These scholars' perspectives were regarded as a novel approach to the study of rural residents' socioeconomic well-being. The approach prioritised local participation and project ownership. The paper found that efforts to develop the Niger Delta region through NDDC’s intervention programmes and projects for 23 years of existence have had little impact on people's lives. Therefore, there continue to obvious catalogue of development failures throughout the Niger Delta communities. Amongst the recommendations advanced by the paper includes that the benefiting communities should be involved in all aspects of the NDDC projects. This implies that the community should be involved in project selection, planning, implementation, and evaluation and that maintenance elements should be built into NDDC contract terms to ensure development project sustainability.