THE POOR QUALITY OF NDDC PROJECTS IN ABIA STATE…

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The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has since its inception gulped billions of naira yearly for the development of the environmentally and economically impoverished Niger-Delta region of Nigeria from where the mainstay of the Nation’s foreign exchange earnings is derived. Among the nine states of the Niger-Delta, it is a fact that the presence of high-impact developmental projects executed by the NDDC is negligible, especially when compared with some other oil-producing states. Whether or not this is a form of marginalization from ‘external’ influences remain to be shown, but it is likely that there is a form of ‘internal’ marginalization by local or indigenous contractors of projects of the NDDC in any given state who execute sub-standard projects to the detriment of the benefiting communities.
This species of ‘internal’ marginalization might even become a form of economic sabotage of the efforts of Abia State government to effect sustainable infrastructural development driven by the uncompromising commitment to execute projects based on best available technology and global best practices.
During an inspection tour, the Honourable Commissioner for Works in Abia State, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, supervised one of the roads constructed by the NDDC, Glassforce-Umuchichi road. It was, to say the least, an isolated sub-standard road project in the midst of the high-quality road-network put in place by Governor Ikpeazu. Knowing the commitment of the Ikpeazu’s administration to keeping to standards, Hon. Eziuche Ubani decried the poor quality of the construction and unequivocally berated the site manager for incompetence.
If nothing is done to nip this emerging trend in the bud, it could be hijacked or misrepresented by saboteurs and political detractors as a means of undermining the efforts of the state government. As Hon. Eziuche Ubani has just demonstrated, any such attempts would be ill-fated and strongly resisted by the state government.