Chris Awhawha
A Warri based constitutional lawyer, Dr Mudiaga Odje has said the chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC is appointed Alphabetically by the President of the Nation and exclusively from the member States and not from oil producing community having highest quantum of production in such a member state .
Dr Odje made the statement while addressing newsmen on Saturday at his office in Warri, Delta State.
He noted that NDDC Act recognizes only a member State as the index and basis ipon which the appointment of a Chairman Is made and not based on an oil producing community with the Highest Quantum of production.
“Once the appointee is an indigene of the State and an indigene of an Oil Producing Community in the State, he stands automatically qualified to be so appointed as a Chairman of the Commission”
“If the Act had intended for an appointee for the Chairmanship position to also come from the highest Oil Producing Community within a member State, the Act would have expressly said so. Having not said so, that inference is clearly excluded from the Act.” The constitutional lawyer stated .
Dr Odje however stated that only a member State has the Locus Standi to challenge the validity of the appointment of a Chairman of the NDDC and not indigenes of an oil producing community of a member State, no matter how much oil same produces.
“This point is very germane to the accentuation made herein, as the Act confers the power on the States to produce the Chairman in alphabetical order, so also is only such as a State that has the Locus or Quo Warranto to sue in respect of any appointment so made” Dr Odje revealed.
He further revealed that the States alone have legal rights when it comes to taking legal action against any purported irregular appointment of Chairman of the NDDC.
Why disclosing how the NDDC Act 2000 was passed, Dr Odje stated that unfortunately, since July 2000, when the NDDC Act came into operation, the Federal Government has been paying only 10% as against 15% of the total budget of the Oil Producing States, whilst the Oil Majors are paying 2% of their annual budgets, as against 3% set out by the Act.
He added that the arrears of these shortfalls runs into millions upon millions of United States dollars and billions upon billions of Naira.
Dr Odje who is also the facilitator of the Niger Delta Democratic Union NDDU disclosed that they are presently mulling over a legal challenge to order the Federal Government and the Oil Majors to comply with Section 14 of the constitution and also be ordered to pay the arrears of shortfalls from July, 2000 till date.