Managing Director, NDDC, Nsima Ekere
…plans spending N2 billion on School Renovations
The Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere, has pledged to sustain the funding of its foreign scholarship programme which started seven years ago.
Mr Ekere, who made the promise in an interview with newsmen in his office at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, stated that NDDC would not abandon any of the scholars properly enrolled into the scholarship scheme.
He affirmed that over 80 per cent of the disbursements have been made, adding that all genuine NDDC scholars would definitely receive their due disbursements. “It might take time and we regret the delay and hardships, but we are doing everything possible to ensure that we release the funds to them as soon as possible,” Ekere assured.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer regretted that some people were using the NDDC scholarship scheme to defraud the government because it was being paid in foreign currency. According to him, “they pretend to be NDDC scholars, when indeed they are not. So this is the problem that we have had and that is why some of the scholars didn’t get their money in time.”
Mr Ekere sympathized with the honest scholars who were caught up in the delays, assuring that where genuine cases were identified, they would be treated immediately. “We understand what they are going through and the hardships they have had to face and we also seek their understanding because a lot of people abused the scholarship scheme,” he said.
The NDDC boss said: “We discovered that there were a lot of discrepancies in the way the scholarship program was being administered. We award scholarships for studies abroad but you find out that money were paid to people who were still in Nigeria. We didn’t see why that should happen.
“There were other cases where people got admission for a certain courses in a certain schools and then along the line, because there is a fixed amount that is paid to every scholar, some of them will go to a different university for a different program other than what the scholarship is for, just because maybe the school is cheaper. So in our records here, we may see that the scholar is probably in the University of Aberdeen, meanwhile we are getting an invoice from a university in Canada.”
Mr Ekere noted that the scholarship scheme was borne of the need to bridge the huge manpower deficit in the Niger Delta region, especially in Engineering, Science and Technology, EST, the fields that drive the oil industry. He added: “We have certain areas we want to concentrate on because we want to develop professional manpower. We discover that some of them have gone for other courses different from what the scholarship was for. So these are some of the areas and we set up a committee to look at and try to resolve.”
He said that within two weeks of setting up a committee to address the challenge, the first set of disbursement were made for those people that had no issues. Shortly after, he said, another set of release were made. “What is remaining is just a very negligible number which we are still working and will soon resolve,” he said.
In anther development, the NDDC will spend N2 billion Naira for the renovation of schools in the Niger Delta region as provided for in its 2017 budget.
This was made known by the NDDC Managing Director, Mr. Ekere, when members of the executive of the Regina Coeli College, Essene, Old Boys Association, paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.
Mr Ekere assured the Old Boys Association that their alma mater would benefit from the renovation exercise. He regretted that the school which used to be a center of excellence in education was now saddled with dilapidated infrastructure. Unfortunately, he said, this was the lot of many schools in the Niger Delta region.
He stated: “This is what has made NDDC to be intervening actively in the renovation of schools. This year we have made a provision of N2 billion Naira for the renovations of schools in the region. We have an extra N1billion for schools in Akwa ibom State and some of this will definitely be extended to Regina Coeli College.”
The NDDC boss noted that education was the key to the development of the society, adding that it was also the tool that could be used to fight insecurity. He said: “If you educate the minds of the people, and educate the minds of the youths, they will know that violence is not an option. They will concentrate and channel their energies and resources towards sustainable livelihoods rather than engage in violence and criminality.”
Mr Ekere said that the NDDC was determined to support education at all levels, adding: “We know that the State governments in the region are doing a lot in the education sector, but being an interventionist agency, we will see where gaps exist and fill them.”
He assured that the Commission would respond to the needs of the schools where necessary, stating that NDDC was ready to work with the old boys of the school to restore the dilapidated facilities.
The President of the Old Boys Association, Chief Clement Isok, said that they were eager and desirous to restore the college to its former glory as one of the elite secondary schools in Nigeria.
According to him, the school was once “the toast of the 60s and 70s with educational and infrastructural facilities that were second to none and was the undisputed choice of parents nationwide for the training of their prized wards.”
Chief Isok lamented: “The College is currently bedeviled with an avalanche of problems. For instance, the College has no perimeter fence, thereby exposing the students and staff to serious security threats. The main entrance road to the College and internal roads are being washed off by erosion and have become inaccessible. The Academic block, Chapel, dormitories and staff quarters have all deteriorated to various stages of disrepair. More pathetic is the fact that the College Assembly/Dining Hall which had been the pride of the students has gradually degenerated into a prison-like cafeteria with blown off roof.”
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