The Executive Chairman of Delta State Oil producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Chief Wellington Okirika speaks about the activities of the commission and other topical issues affecting the inhabitants of the oil producing areas in particular and the Niger Delta in general
Q: How will you describe the current violence in the Niger Delta?
A: There is no violence in Delta State. It is peaceful, largely because of the activities of our Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan, who has put machinery in place to ensure peace and security in Delta State; by creating the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, to focus on human capital and infrastructural development, and ensure security in the waterways agency in collaboration with other agencies that are ensuring peace. So, if you are talking about violence in the Niger Delta, please exclude Delta State.
Q: What is the relationship between Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC; DESOPADEC and other interventionist agencies created by the government?
A: NDDC is a federal intervention agency. It has been in existence for some time, and it took its origin from the Oil and Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC. OMPADEC was the first interventionist agency created by the government, but it was not properly constituted. The principle behind the creation of that commission was warped; if the people produce 100 per cent of the wealth of the nation and you give them only 3 per cent back, that was what OMPADEC was. Then, in the case of NDDC, we still have the problem of funding and neglect. The problem of youth restiveness is so enormous that you do not need one but several agencies. So states should create their own agencies that focus on the actual oil producing areas and communities. In Delta State we have DESOPADEC, which is the foremost agency of government, founded through the initiative and foresight of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. We have OSOPADEC in Ondo State, EDOSOPADEC in Edo State and IMOSOPADEC in Imo State. They are all agencies created by different state governments, and they are all working towards curtailing the spate of violence, poverty in the midst of plenty, underdevelopment and so on. The focus of NDDC is the entire Niger Delta, while DESOPADEC is for the actual oil producing communities in Delta State, with a clear and specific mandate to provide and improve infrastructures and banish poverty from the land.
Q: Are you in support of the clamour for a higher derivation for the Niger Delta and the creation of a coordinating agency for the region’s interventionist agencies?
A: Yes, I’m fully in support of government giving a higher derivation to the Niger Delta region. During the cocoa, coal and groundnut pyramid era, all these other regions got it, so why not the Niger Delta that is producing the bulk of the nation’s wealth? I am also clamouring for the creation of a coordinating agency that will oversee the functions of all the federal and state intervention agencies, so as to achieve better results.
Q: What should we expect from DESOPADEC in the next two years?
A: DESOPADEC has brought hope to the people, it has recreated confidence and patriotism in the communities. The oil companies now prospect for oil and install their oil facilities with ease. It is clear that DESOPADEC is now a source of employment, infrastructural development, human capital empowerment, micro-credit provision, scholarship, creation of jobs through agricultural process centres, cassava centres, rice centre as well as long term creation of job and wealth. We are also currently involved in modular refinery establishment and gas process plants. In addition, we have a pulp and paper processing centre that will be making newsprint, which will save the country a lot of foreign exchange because we won’t have to import newsprint any longer to print our newspapers and magazines. We are going to make pulp and paper from the mangrove swamps. These are things that we are doing and in a few years from now, we will be able to create more jobs, more empowerment and then the peace we are currently enjoying in Delta State will become permanent.
Q: Sir, your earth to water experiment is working very well, people are now getting clean water. When will this pilot project be extended to other parts of the states?
A: When we came on board, we looked at the problems of the communities. The problem of neglect has been compounded by the fact that the people have lost their source of livelihood to the greater part of the country, that the wealth of the people has been taken over by the federal government and only very little was done for them in return. When we came on board, we also found that they didn’t have the money to get potable water and people were dying in their thousands from lack of medical care. We found out that the cause of epidemic was bad water, so we went into finding solutions and you know the world is now a global village. We made contacts in Israel and the USA, and the manufacturers came with their equipment that purifies the water into the most drinkable water for mankind. These equipment will be duplicated, so as to provide for as many communities that our available funds can carry. And through our medical intervention agency’s efforts and programmes, we have been able to treat free of charge more than 400,000 inhabitants of the oil producing communities of Delta State. These included surgeries, general treatment and free drugs.
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