![]() This capped his near one decade of stewardship in the NDDC. In no time, higher responsibilities beckoned in the NDDC as Alaibe was appointed managing director in 2007, a position he held until 2009. He had reason, on a number of occasions, to oversee the affairs of the organisation in the absence of substantive chief executives. ![]() This is a region spread across 5000 communities, covering 185 local government areas and collectively straddling nine states in the region, in three geopolitical zones, the south-west, south-south and south-east. Timi Alaibe was an integral part of the team, steered by Ugochukwu, which developed a regional masterplan to guide systematic development in the Niger Delta. Alaere, by the way, had native-speaker competence in Yoruba, which privileged my culinary options on our visits! His love for good music and tennis were unmistakable, madam’s kitchen ever active, satisfying us with delicacies. With his beloved wife, Alaere, who went to be with the Lord, over a decade ago, Alaibe’s home was always wide open to receive us. The typically warm, friendly and receptive Alaibe, appropriated my friends and I as his own guests on our fairly frequent visits to the “Garden City”. My relationship with Ugochukwu, chairman of the board, implied I was a regular face in Port Harcourt, especially between January 2001 and May 2005. His friends and close aides named that room a “coven”! He routinely retired to an adjoining room behind his desk, whenever he needed to catch his breath. ![]() Even at that, Alaibe’s forehead never betrayed furrows of fatigue or discomfort as he helped to emplace a seamlessly functioning work environment. Amiable, accessible, charismatic, his office was ever bustling with top officers, bureaucrats within the system, contractors and guests alike. The overarching mandate of his official brief which accorded him superintendence over almost a dozen directorates and departments, made him the virtual rotor of the new baby. The 19-man board of the NDDC also drew members from the ranks of professionals, university scholars and bureaucrats to broaden its knowledge base and experiential vistas.Īlaibe would rapidly become a very familiar face and dominant force, all through the teething years of the organisation. 38-year-old Ndutimi, better known by the short form of his name, “Timi” Alaibe, an accountant and banker, was executive director, finance and administration of the new creation, among other appointments. Top flight economist, journalist and administrator, Onyema Ugochukwu, was chairman while mining engineer and first indigenous deputy managing director at Shell Petroleum, Godwin Eyarubere Omene was managing director. The new board was largely composed of technocrats of various hues. He responded by promptly establishing the NDDC just as he consented to the remittance of 13% of accruing fiscal resources by the federal government to the oil producing states, to boost multi-sectoral development in the oil-bearing states. This was inspite of humongous sums regularly voted by previous governments for the transformation of the zone via the machinery of OMPADEC. The new president reckoned that OMPADEC, like similar outfits established by preceding administrations, had failed to impact the growth and development of the oil-producing sections of the country as intended. ![]() In the course of his consultations and campaigns ahead of his election in 1999, Obasanjo had been severally inundated with strident calls and clamour for fresh developmental impetus for those parts of the country which literally lay the golden egg. Nigeria’s president at the time, Olusegun Obasanjo, had initiated the NDDC as a more focused, impactful, enduring, and more sustainable replacement to the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC). He was one of the most noticeably young faces at the December 2000 inauguration of the foundation board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the federal executive council chambers of the presidential villa, Abuja.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |