The Niger Delta Development Commission is a Federal

Federation

A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...

 Government agency

Government agency

A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...

 established by Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo in the year 2000 with the sole mandate of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta

Niger Delta

The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

 region of southern Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

.
In September 2008, President Umaru Yar'Adua announced the formation of a Niger Delta Ministry

Niger Delta Ministry

The Niger Delta Ministry was announced by Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on 10 September 2008. The new ministry would have a Minister in charge of development of Niger Delta area, and a Minister of State in charge of youth empowerment...

, with the Niger Delta Development Commission to become a parastatal under the ministry.

Background

The NDDC was created largely as a response to the demands of the population of the Niger Delta, a populous area inhabited by a diversity of minority ethnic groups. During the 1990s these ethnic groups, most notably the Ijaw and the Ogoni established organisations to confront the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies such as Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

. The minorities of the Niger Delta have continued to agitate and articulate demands for greater autonomy and control of the area's petroleum resources. They justify their grievances by reference to the extensive environmental degradation and pollution from oil activities that have occurred in the region since the late 1950s. However, the minority communities of oil producing areas have received little or no currency from the oil industry and environmental remediation measures are limited and negligible. The region is highly underdeveloped and is poor even by Nigeria's standards for quality of life.

Sometimes violent confrontation with the state and oil companies, as well as with other communities has constrained oil production as disaffected youth or organisations deliberately disrupt oil operations in attempts to effect change. These disruptions have been extremely costly to the Nigerian oil industry, and both the multinationals and the federal government have vested interests in permitting uninterrupted extraction operations; the NDDC is a result of these concerns and is an attempt to satisfy the demands of the delta's population.

Mandate and operations

The NDDC operates under the mandate of improving social and environmental conditions in the South-South region, which it acknowledges as horrific in its own reports. However, the organisation has come under scrutiny and according to some is generally regarded as vehicle of corruption and prebendalism

Prebendalism

Richard A. Joseph, director of The Program of African Studies at Northwestern University, is usually credited with first using the term prebendalism to describe patron-client or neopatrimonialism in Nigeria...

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To achieve its mandate, the NDDC board identified the following areas of focus:
Development of social and physical infrastructure
Technology
Economic revival and prosperity
Ecological/environmental remediation and stability
Human development

Executive Chairman

The position of Executive Chairman of the NDDC has been a subject of much debate. A compromise was reached where the position would be rotated within the nine oil producing states in alphabetical order: Abia

Abia State

Abia State is a state in southeastern Nigeria. The capital is Umuahia, although the major commercial city is Aba, formerly a British colonial government outpost. The state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State and its citizens are predominantly Igbo people...

, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa

Bayelsa State

Bayelsa State is a state in southern Nigeria in the core Niger Delta region, between Delta State and Rivers State. Its capital is Yenagoa. The language spoken here is Ijaw language and dialects of the Ijaw language such as Nembe, Atissa, Akassa, Ogbia, etc. However, like the rest of Nigeria,...

, Cross River

Cross River State

Cross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...

, Delta

Delta State

Delta State may refer to:*Delta State, a state in southern Nigeria.*Delta State , a Canadian animated television series.*Delta State University, a public university located in the U.S. state of Mississippi....

, Edo

Edo State

Edo State is an inland state in central southern Nigeria. Its capital is Benin City. It is bounded in the north and east by Kogi State, in the south by Delta State and in the west by Ondo State.-History:...

, Imo

Imo State

Imo State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria and lies to the south of Nigeria with Owerri as its capital and largest city.-History:Imo State came into existence in 1976 along with other new states created under the leadership of the late military ruler of Nigeria, Murtala Muhammad, having been...

, Ondo

Ondo State

Ondo State, Nigeria was created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. It originally included what is now Ekiti State, which was split off in 1996. Akure is the state capital.-Government and society:...

 and Rivers

Rivers State

Rivers State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. Its capital is Port Harcourt. It is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states...

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Chairman	State	Term of Service
Mr. Chibuzor Ugwoha	Rivers State	2008- Present
Samuel Edem Samuel Edem Samuel Edem is a former Nigerian ambassador and the current Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission . He hails from Ndiya,Nsit Ubium Akwa Ibom State in southern Nigeria.- References :*...	Akwa Ibom	2005 - 2009 Suspended
Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinyan	Bayelsa State	2009 - Present
Dr. (Mrs.) C.V.N. Atako	Delta State	2009 - Present