By ASOPADEC Won’t be Deterred By NDDC’s Neglect Of Oil Producing Communities In Abia
By Uchechukwu Ugboaja
Abia State is one of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) States with two local governments Ukwa East and Ukwa West as its oil and gas producing communities as Abia state accounts for Nigeria’s largest deposit of natural gas. A visit by our investigative reporter UCHECHUKWU UGBOAJA to these areas reveal little or no presence of the NDDC with the statutory responsibility established by Act of Parliament. This was the background for his exclusive chat with the Barr. Henry Goodluck Chilaka the Sole Administrator of ASOPADEC the state owned interventionist body, where he shares with us why his agency is not perturbed by NDDC’s abdication of responsibility. Excerpts
QUESTION: What does ASOPADEC represent in terms of its mandate and as a young person did your appointment as its Sole Administrator by governor Ikpeazu come to you as a surprise?
RESPONSE: Basically, ASOPADEC represents Abia State Oil Producing Communities Development Commission and its primary mandate is to provide intervention services and projects which are meant to improving the living conditions of our people in the oil producing areas as well as mitigating the impact of exploration activities on the rural people.
Well as regards my appointment did not come to me as a surprise because the governor has always insisted that the only reward in Abia state for hard work is more work, and as a member of the board of ASOPADEC before May 10th 2017 I had devoted major part of my time to learning on the job of serving humanity from several leaders which includes His Excellency the governor himself, and so as a young person I had this passion and enthusiasm towards handling more demanding responsibilities, so my appointment didn’t come to me as a a ur price but as a fulfilment of dreams which I have had in the time past and so when it came I felt this high responsibility to deliver to make the governor proud, to make the people of Ukwa West proud, to make Abians in general proud and also to touch my staff here. So the feeling was sort of mixed in terms of fulfillment and that of responsibility.
QUESTION: With your being involved with the agency even prior to your appointment just recently, we believe that you have had the rare privilege of accessing the major areas of need of these communities. Can you share with us these particular areas which you intend to focus urgently?
RESPONSE: Just like I said earlier ASOPADEC is all about providing services to the people of the oil producing areas as you know owing to the activities of oil exploration the people are exposed to several forms of environmental degradation which leads to economic deprivation and pollution of our soil and water ways which consequently results in the unwholesome outcome of our farm produces, health and physical challenges amongst women, children and the elderly all as a result of the exploration of oil and gas in these communities. ASOPADEC was created to look into such areas and then provide basic amenities and in most cases palliatives to the people.
I have to admit mildly that although ASOPADEC ought to be an interventionist agency according to its mandate, in the past ASOPADEC deviated so much from its primary responsibility but I have made a commitment to restore it back to its core responsibility and bring it under focus as we have even began to concentrate more on intervening to ensure we ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
Like the saying goes ‘Rome was not built in one day’, we started by immediately blocking leakages and areas that funds were erroneously channelled towards things that were not relevant to the mandate and now we have re-channelled funds to the plight of our people because our people have a better chance of living better than they are doing at the moment. Remember we cannot touch everyone all at the same time so the best to touch the lives of majority is to set out projects that will impact on them in strategic areas such as agriculture, education, health, economic empowerment in an innovative manner.
Like in agriculture we have engaged a team of expert to establish ASOPADEC Farms. Our objective here is to train and retrain people of this oil producing areas on modern farming procedures as well as teach them on how apply basic science and tech skills which will enhance their farm produce at the end of the day.
In health care we are alive to our responsibilities as we have embarked on a robust equipping of some strategic health care centres across the various communities with the aim of making health care centres accessible to women, children and the elderly when they need them.
In the area of education we have chosen to embark on scholarships for strategic reasons simply because we believe that our duty to these communities will not be complete if we don’t encourage them to acquire formal education. Remember when you train one individual you have empowered a whole community and so we are focused on given scholarships to deserving students who will be sponsored to institutions both either at home or abroad depending on the nature of the discipline. As for our pupils in primary schools as I speak now we have commenced the procurement of chairs and desks for some schools in a bid to ensure that the learning conditions in our schools are enhanced for better performance by our kids. Also note that these furniture are being produced by some of our youths who we are training in this art so under the competent guidance of a local furniture manufacturing company.
I can also tell you that we have recently engaged engaged an indigenous steel manufacturing company domiciled here in Abia, to train some of our youths in the art of steel making. This is essentially to ensure that they acquire the skill and knowledge needed to achieve self reliance in this area and we have even decided to give them some stipend with which they would use in starting out something for themselves as soon as they are competent enough to stand on their own.
In terms of providing infrastructure we have embarked on the grading and maintenance of rural roads to aid easy access for both goods and services, we have also provided pipe-borne water in various locations, we have also built some civic centres and town halls for these communities because there have been an age long practice of mortgaging their palm trees to raise money as a collective to have some of these community infrastructure built. However, I thank God that we have intervened in this area and the practice of leasing out their palm trees to agricultural merchants from neighbouring states like Cross-over and Akwa-Ibom states has been checked, because we found out that they end up not being able to finish any of the projects on their own for as long as five to twenty years in some cases and this is how the cycle of poverty continues. We are happy that ASOPADEC has come to their rescue today to build these town halls for them and as we speak today two of them are actually ready for commissioning, one at Ekpoku and the other at Imiku-Ozara.
I may also add that on a personal level it excites me to be a part of the touching of lives of indigent members of these communities such as widows. As a practicing lawyer I used part of my salary to build houses for these poor and vulnerable in our areas and even sometimes in collaboration with other privileged friends who I won’t like to mention on this platform. The most recent is a 3bedroom flat just completed would soon be handed over to the widows which is the 3rd of its kind using my salary as a lawyer and my allowances here as the then commissioner. This is not ASOPADEC here but my personal effort at making a difference in the lives of people.
QUESTION: Having heard how much you are committed to serving this people it is important to ask if you also enjoy an equal level of goodwill and support from the people from these communities as we know that it is one thing to have the will, zeal and passion to serve them and it is also another thing for them to reciprocate it in terms of goodwill, because leadership is about followership?
RESPONSE: I must tell you something important first of all my driving force so far has been has been the kind of solidarity I receive whenever I am at any public function is really cheering. You know when you touch the lives of people and they show this appreciation it has a way of making you do more. The feed back has been very wonderful and it makes me re-energized to do even more.
To emphasise what I’m saying there have been a plethora of groups including youths and community leaders from within the oil producing areas and outside who have shown me tremendous goodwill since my appointment Inspite of my being a youth such as the Vote Okezie Again group, Abia Youth Assembly (AYA), Supreme Council of Ukwa-Ngwa Youths, All Citizens Forum and Ohaneze Ndigbo Youths. Others are National Association of Ndoki Students (NANS), National Leadership of Federation of Ngwa Students, Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Local government Traditional Rulers Council paid me a very prestigious visit with a 13 man delegate. The PDP state executives also came calling which included former People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Senator Emma Nwakpa as well as Chief Uzodinma Okpara the former state chairman of Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), simply to encourage me to keep the good works going.
I don’t expect anyone to be surprised because I am a student of the dynamic and innovative school of thought of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu PhD, I’ve learnt from him and I’m still learning from him.
QUESTION: In Nigeria today there is a huge call by youths for the Legislature to reduce the age limit for youths to have access to available political positions. Your case is a clear example that youths can fit in properly if given the chance. What will be your response to those who might be insisting that you might be lacking the prerequisite experience to deliver on the job?
RESPONSE: First of all I’m a trained lawyer with a sound background in Energy and Natural Gas Law. Apart from that, I have been a councillor twice in Ukwa-West Local government council in 2006-2007. I have also been a supervisor for health in the same local government council and I was personal assistance to the Deputy Governor on political matters in 2010/2011. I still went further to become an ASOPADEC Board member in 2014 until my appointment this point where I am today. It is important to note that this board is made up of 11 persons which include former federal and state legislature, former commissioners, former Permanent Secretaries and other renowned personalities that I had drawn various leadership experiences from. So if as a young person I represented the people of Ukwa-West in such a board for 3 years with such calibre of persons around not forgetting my background as a lawyer what more experience do I need to lead ASOPADEC. Overall I thank God and the visionary Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state for finding me worthy for this role.
QUESTION: The federal government also has a similar body in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) established by Act of Parliament to provide intervention services and projects for oil producing communities across the country. How can you access their contributions?
RESPONSE: I will be very frank with you on this, the NDDC have not lived up to one percent of its responsibility to the oil producing communities in Abia state. In fact there is no presence of NDDC either in Ukwa-East or Ukwa-West local government.
The last time we heard anything about NDDC was at its inception when Mr. Okechukwu Nwaubani represented Abia State in the board of NDDC. I can tell you authoritatively that if you go round that the only projects you will find was either during the tenure of Mr. Okechukwu Nwaubani which is nearly a over decade ago, and they are either abandoned or the monies collected and contractors disappeared. It is quite unfortunate Abia State has had it so rough because NDDC has not lived up to its responsibilities to Abia State and its oil producing communities in particular.
QUESTION: So how have ASOPADEC been able to manage agitations from youths when they arise as a result of the exploration activities of these Multinationals?
RESPONSE: Well one very important thing is the ability to build confidence in the people one leads. I have been able to build that confidence in our youths not just because I’m one but there is a level of understanding and believe in what I do, which is not different from what I tell them. I can assure you that if there is any group that I have the widest support in these communities, it is from the youth and student body because they have actually followed me an they know that this ASOPADEC leadership is that of truth and sincerity so that makes it easy to manage them.
Thanks for your time SIr, as we’ll be keeping track of ASOPADEC’s activities in the future.
