The fear of failing like previous Federal Government intervention agencies has driven the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) to go into retreat.
They chose the Garden City which has the graveyard of failed intervention agencies to train.
Over 220 wards within hydroelectric power areas in Nigeria have been identified as host and impacted areas of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) and these are soon to be boosted with amenities.
Some of the amenities lined up for implementation include 120 solar powered electricity projects, roads, rehabilitation of schools, university scholarships, water, and over 2000 West African Examinations forms for final year students.
The managing director of the Commission, Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Wednesday, December 15, 2021, said approval had been given for project implementation but that these would spring from the 2022 budget of the Commission which is still in the National Assembly. He however, mentioned some other sources of income that are opening up for the intervention agency.
The HYPPADEC governing council has just begun a five-day retreat in Port Harcourt to study what led to the failure of previous federal intervention agencies or why agitation continued despite their continued existence.
To arrive at the projects, the MD/CEO told newsmen in an interview that the Commission embarked on needs assessment trips to 220 wards around Nigeria under the catchment areas so as to pinpoint the exact needs of the communities.
It was after this he said the plan to repair roads, schools, water, scholarships, etc, arose.
“We will however not compete with various levels of governments to deliver projects to communities. We will only close some gaps in impacted areas,” he said.
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For the university scholarships scheme, Yelwa said the Commission has identified very intelligent but indigent students from the areas.
Earlier in his address, the MD reminded the participants that HYPPADEC was established as far back as 2010 but not until November 2020 did the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari nominate board members to the National Assembly which gave birth to the Commission in January 2021.
He said the Commission was established to address ecological challenges and to promote socio-economic development of communities affected by the operations of hydroelectric dams in the six states of Niger, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Benue and Plateau. He said the challenges are enormous due to decades of sacrifice among others by the affected communities for the country to enjoy electricity. He said priorities have been identified.
The chairman, Joseph Ityav, former member of the House of Representatives for Buruku in Benue State, said the Commission has gone round and saw raw hardship in communities, saying priorities are on ecological matters and infrastructure.
In a keynote address, the Chairman, National Commission on Salaries, Wages and Income, Ekpo Nta, traced the history of failure of federal intervention agencies and warned HYPPADEC to avoid the pitfalls especially on host community issues.
Nta, who was part of the defunct Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), warned the HYPPADEC managers to be cautious about traditional rulers and youth leaders that would ambush them and claim to represent the host communities. He warned that most of them are mere township dwellers who actually do not speak for the grassroots.
Harping on need to honour promises, Nta told them to ensure they fulfilled any single promise made to the people, saying the communities are like children who never forget a promise.
Urging them to learn from the experiences of previous intervention agencies, the former chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) said most public officers tend to want to loot because of how directors in some previous agencies before them were laid off without reason.
He said some directors in one of such agencies had to go to court and got judgment after 11 years, but said the next generation of directors seemed to learn a lesson by taking care of themselves while the job lasted.
He charged the directorate in charge of community affairs to be up and running and be ahead of conflict entrepreneurs to avoid crisis and handing assets to wrong persons. He said those who would lose out on contracts would call for scrapping of the Commission all the time.
He took time to lecture the board on building integrity and obeying the rules governing the public service especially on what their allowances and rights were and what not to attempt to touch. Nta left them with a question: “In the next 10 years, would you want to be scrapped and replaced by another agency or would you want to remain relevant to the affairs of the host communities of hydroelectric power producing areas?”
He however, said: It is what you do henceforth that would determine the outcome.”
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CAPTIONS
1. Abubakar Sadi Yelwa, MD, HYPPADEC
2. Joseph Ityav, chairman
