‘Corporate governance will enhance productivity in NDDC’

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been urged to seek collaboration with other federal and state government’s agencies including private sector and development partners in an effort to improve on its corporate governance service delivery.

The Executive Director, African Centre For Leadership, Strategy and Development, Dr. Otive Igbuzor gave this advice during the commission’s three-day retreat for the personnel of the Office of Executive Director, Corporate Service and Department of Corporate Governance and Due Process, with the theme “Building Synergy for Optimal Service Delivery and Effective Corporate Governance”.

“Building synergy will lead to enhanced performance resulting from efforts of collaboration. Synergy can lead to improved project conception, execution, efficient resource utilization and better stakeholder management,’ He added.

Also, a lecturer with the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Professor Sylvester Akhaine urged the commission to wake up to its corporate responsibilities in the region it operates.

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“NDDC is an interventionist commission of the state dedicated to implementing development, not to the private primitive accumulation of resources but development. The NDDC role is cut out for it. It is a development agency that informs its mission, vision and values,” he added.

He advised the commission to strictly follow the law that established it, saying it will help to curtail corruption.

“The commission operates in a general atmosphere of corruption where the state, itself rentier and with a retinue of rent-seeking officials and free-riders, ready to subvert its mandate through misappropriation and misapplication of the commission’s scarce resources.

“Therefore, for effective service delivery, the commission must run its business according to extant rules establishing the commission without succumbing to the meddlesomeness of federal public officials in quest of rent. In this way, capital and those seeking to misuse it can be disciplined,” he said.

Earlier, the NDDC’s Executive Director, Corporate Services, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde urged the staff to leverage on the outcome of the retreat on corporate governance and optimal service delivery to enable the commission to fulfill its mandate in the Niger Delta region.