NIDSUG Senate President Faults Appointment Of Sole Administrator For NDDC

By Daniel Dafe
Comrade Mackson Ode, Senate President, Niger Delta Student Union Government, NIDSUG has condemned the appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In a press statement made available to Oasis Magazine (OM), titled: ‘The Shortcomings of a Sole Administrator for the NDDC,’ said “the Act establishing the NDDC (NDDC Act, 2000) has no provision for a Sole Administrator.”

Adding: “Section 2(1) number 6 clearly states how the board shall be constituted. Therefore, Sole Administrator is illegal and not a proper office for a going concern.”

According to him, “a sole administrator can only come about by court order not executive fiat.

“Simply put, when the executive arm of government exceeds its constitutionally provided or prescribed powers, it is called “executive recklessness and excesses”. This should not be condoned in any guise,” he said.

Continuing, he said: “Legally speaking, any act that’s inconsistent with the provision of the law, shall be void and of effect to the extent of its inconsistencies. (Section 1(3), 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) as amended.

“The NDDC is made up of 9 States and an administrator from one state is an aberration and an unwelcome proposition capable of creating disharmony amongst the member states.”

ALSO READ: DELSU: SSANU, NASU Blast FG, Fault Sharing Formula For N30Bn Released To ASUU

The statement also adds that “a forensic audit can go on side by side with a legally constituted board. There must not be an illegally constituted body before a forensic audit could succeed.

“It is doubtful if a Sole Administrator can defray expenses on behalf of the board. The Act did not provide for a Sole Administrator, therefore every expenditure above the normal day to day office expenses including salaries will amount to extra budgetary expenditure which amounts to illegal expenses If and when carried out. This exactly is what’s being done by the “coven based” Sole Administrator of the NDDC.

“A Sole Administrator is a worse type of corruption than that which the forensic auditors are interrogating. This is because, it breaches all and every Act establishing the NDDC. You cannot solve illegality using another illegality.

“A Sole Administrator is not an organic or tool in a democracy except in a corporate liquidation/insolvency process via an order from a Court of competent jurisdiction. That is only an option if the body/institution is insolvent or bankrupt. The NDDC is not bankrupt or insolvent and there’s no such order from any Court of competent jurisdiction.”

Furthermore, he opined that “the Sole Administrator is worse than the Interim Management Committee (IMC) which the Court dissolved in its wisdom using the instrumentalities of the law.”

“The Sole Administrator has all the strapping of an executive recklessness in waiting. This should not be allowed to stand. It is a kangaroo arrangement that can only succeed in a “Banana Republic”. The Niger Delta region is too sophisticated and enlightened for that,” he added.