NDDC: A Nation Where Nobody Can Just Faint

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

One of the most uncharitable things said about anyone at the current investigations of corruption at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is the suggestion that its acting Managing Director Professor Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei could have acted his fainting at Monday’s sessions. Those with this thinking have made up their mind. Nothing could get them to think differently. 

The strings of comedy from the incident is drowning the importance of dealing with corruption in NDDC. A casual observer of the unfolding NDDC events would think Pondei committed a criminal by responding to his environment. 

NDDC issued a statement that Pondei was ill. He had defied instructions of his doctors to attend the sessions. His traducers would not hear that. They went off tangent. For them, a fainting incident became a heart attack. They have marvelled at Pondei’s quick recovery. 

Pictures emerged of him reportedly walking home from hospital, according to the images, “after a heart attack”. Cartoonists are having a field day too. Nothing was further from those depictions. Did Pondei not complain about the stuffiness of the room before he passed out? 

When the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr., Femi Gbajabiamila arrived at the meeting room, he apologised over its stuffiness. We may need another probe to know why a meeting room at the National Assembly would provide stuffiness as value for the billions of Naira it costs to keep the buildings. Or is the stuffiness a protest over the slight cut in the N37 billion that the National Assembly wanted for the maintenance of the buildings in 2020? 

One thought Mr. Gbajabiamila’s explanations addressed the circumstances of the fainting. What else could have been done to convince people that the Pondei’s health and the state of the room accounted for the passing out? 

Are Nigerians becoming so heartless that they would not accept the fact that a man can suddenly fall sick? We should be praising the medics who surfaced promptly and rescued the situation. 

Day after, a Deputy Director, Media Relations, NDDC’s Corporate Affairs Department, Dr. Pius Ughakpoteni, revealed on television show Kakaaki that Pondei fainted “in December (2019) while holidaying in Kigali, Rwanda, with his family.” 

The fainting incidents should not define Pondei, a Professor of Medical Microbiology with specialty in Virology. He came to the NDDC position from the Niger Delta University, where he was the Provost of the College of Health Sciences. Pondei earned his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Lagos and a PhD in Microbiology at the School of Molecular Medical Sciences, University of Nottingham. He has been a university teacher since 2001. In April 2019, he delivered the 36th Lecture Series of the Niger Delta University on Viruses: Ignored, Neglected, Poorly Understood with Resulting Devastating Consequences. 

Focus should return to salvaging NDDC from its looter unless we are more interested in the utopia of building a nation where nobody can faint.

Isiguzo is former Chairman, Editorial Board of Vanguard newspaper.