NDDC MD: Akpabio Moves To Present Umana Umana
Fresh facts have emerged that barring any last minute change, the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom state government Mr Umana Umana who has allegedly been nominated by the state governor Chief Godswill Akpabio will soon be announced as the new managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
According to a very reliable source in the state government house, Akpabio's recourse to Umana for the NDDC plum job is based on the widespread unpopularity of his candidacy as Akpabio's successor in 2015, and the need to give the astute bureaucrat a soft landing.
It is believed that this decision to select Mr Umana, which is sanctioned by law will further put him in a position of financial authority to be relevant in the 2015 polls.
With Nsit Ubium, an area with no history of oil exploration being recognized as an oil producing community, the alleged nomination of Umana is considered in tandem with the law establishing the NDDC which stipulates that such positions should be occupied by indigenes of oil producing communities.
The decision to dump Umana in the governorship race for the Akwa Ibom State n 2015, it is believed, stems from the fact that considering Governor Akpabio's position as the chairman of the PDP Governor's forum, he would love to set an example in maintaining the statutes of the party which makes it mandatory for positions to be rotated among different blocs in the polity.
By the PDP constitution, Umana is not qualified to be nominated by the party as candidate since the rotation arrangement in Akwa Ibom does not favour his senatorial district in the forth coming governorship elections.
However, one thing that may stand against Umana's smooth ride to NDDC's hierarchy is the alleged financial recklessness that has characterised his antecedence.
As the chairman of FGPC, the financial body of the State Government that vets and awards contract, Umana is said to award contracts running into billions of naira without recourse to due process.
Recently, contracts amounting to N6bn have been awarded without any bidding process. Similarly none of the roads contract in the state has been preceded by a notice of invitation to tender for bidding in any mass media.
It is also believed that through Mr Umana's instrumentality, contracts variations are usually carried out indiscriminately, while abandoned contracts are re-awarded to other companies without any action against the defaulting contractors.
Umana was also the Commissioner for Finance under former Governor Attah's administration that was enmeshed in several financial mismanagement that left behind a debt of over N40bn for Governor Akpabio in 2007
Umana, if his nomination sails through, will be the second Akwa Ibom indigene from Nsit Ubium to occupy an exulted office in NDDC. It would be recalled that Amb Sam Edem whose tenure was marred by a financial scandal, also hails from Ndiya in Nsit Ubium local government area.