Emerging facts have shown that the Hon. Minister for Transport, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi is the brain behind the dissolution of the Niger Delta Development Commission board, and the appointment of Prof. Nelson Brambaifa as the MD of the interventionist agency.
Available information reveals that Mr Amaechi bypassed the Secretary to Federal government, Mr. Boss Mustapha, in dissolving the NDDC board.
According to available information, Amaechi has for long sought for the removal of Mr. Derek .L. Mene, who is said to be an ally of Magnus Abe, who the Transport minister is having a running battle of supremacy with, in the Rivers state All Progressives Congress.
Amaechi was said to have written a memo to President Muhammadu Buhari, requesting the dissolution of the board of the interventionist agency. This was said to have been overridden by the SGF, Boss Mustapha, who made it known that the offices are tenured, thus advised against the dissolution.
On Friday, the 25th of January, 2019, the outgone MD, Mr. Nsima Ekere, was at the presidency to submit his resignation letter, and to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for giving him the opportunity to serve. This information, sources claimed, threw Mr. Amaechi into a desperate state, as he dashed down to the presidency with an old memo earlier assented to by Mr President, before the attention of Mr President was drawn to the impropriety of acceding to Amaechi’s request.
According to credible sources, it was the old memo that Mr. Amaechi handed over to President Buhari’s spokesman, Mr. Femi Adeshina, prevailing on him to announce the dissolution of the NDDC board, who thought he was carrying out Mr. President’s order.
The announcement which came through some online media portals and social media sites, has been generating negative responses from across the Niger Delta. Some Niger Deltans are of the opinion that since the outgone MD, Mr.Nsima Ekere’s tenure is expected to expire by 2021, his replacement in the light of his resignation, should have come from Akwa Ibom where the outgone MD hails from as stipulated by the act to complete their tenure. By procedure, the executive director finance and administration should have acted as managing director till such a time a replacement is appointed and confirmed by the senate.
In the light of this that the transport minister who sees the EDFA Mr Derek Mene an allay to senator Abe a threat who must be removed. Seeing the difficulty in singling him out for removal, went for the dissolution of the entire board damning the consequences it would have on the government and the complete violation on the act establishing the NDDC without recourse to the law.
The appointment of Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, a Bayelsan and his returning officer in the 2015 elections, by Mr. Rotimi Amaechi from the position of a state Rep, to an acting MD, is done in bad taste, and is seen in many quarters as a slight on chief Timipre Sylva who is the leader of the party in Bayelsa state. Also, the removal of Mr. Derek Mene, an Ogoni man who is being replaced by Mr. Chris Oyendah Amadi, an Ikwerre man is a slight to the ogonis who are the largest oil producers. This appointments have created an imbalance in the spread of offices, as Mr. Chris is from the same zone with Minister Amaechi, and doubles as his personal assistant.
What is the essence of dissolving an entire board only to handpick loyal individuals in acting capacity?
Sources claim that Mr. Rotimi Chubike Amechi, has continued to pursue his disdain for Sen. Magnus Abe and by extension his hatred for the Ogoni’s by removing their son Mr. Derek Mene and replacing him with his kinsman Mr. Chris Oyirinda Amadi who was never part of the board just to further his personal ambition at the expense of the federal government.
