Inside the air-conditioned hall of the Dr Obi Wali International Conference Centre, Niger Delta stakeholders tried to redefine the pathway to sustainable development in Nigeria’s oil-rich region.
A blunt and uncomfortable question hung in the air: After 26 years since the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established, why does development still feel scattered?
That question set the tone for the 2026 Partners for Sustainable Development Conference, which was held last week in Port Harcourt.
For a day, the Niger Delta paused to look at itself. Traditional rulers in flowing white, youth leaders in branded shirts, women leaders, commissioners from nine states, development partners, and community chiefs who had travelled long distances all sat under one roof. The theme hung above them like a challenge: Synergy for Transformation: Aligning Regional Development, Local Governance and Sustainable Partnerships.
Dr Samuel Ogbuku, the NDDC Managing Director who has made stakeholder engagement his mantra, was direct. “Progress recorded by the Commission is collective. But so are the failures,” he told the hall.
“Stakeholders must actively participate and offer ideas that will improve our operations and service delivery.” Then he did something different for an NDDC chief executive. He presented not a new project, but a rule book. A Rule Book, Not Just a Road. The centrepiece of this year’s PSD is a Stakeholder Document – a governance framework that will guide how NDDC plans, awards, monitors and accounts for projects.
Attached to it is a Community Monitoring Committee, made up of people from the communities themselves. It is a quiet revolution. For years, communities complained that they only see contractors, not the Commission. This time, the Commission is saying, “You will monitor us.”
Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, understood the weight. He told the stakeholders that the National Assembly would consider amending the NDDC Act of 2002 to embed the master plan and governance framework into law, so it survives beyond any board.
One Region, One Compass. The most powerful intervention came from the Minister of Regional Development, Engr. Abubakar Momoh. No single institution can address the complex challenges of the Niger Delta alone,” Momoh said. His ministry, he revealed, is now drafting a National Policy on Regional Development that will harmonise the master plans of all development commissions – NDDC, North East, South East, South West and others – into one national compass.
The NDDC Director of Community and Rural Development, Theophilus Allagoa, put it in practical terms: overlapping mandates mean one agency builds a health centre where another just built one, while the next village has no water. The PSD must end that waste. The Politics of Sharing. Ogbuku also laid bare how NDDC shares its resources: 50 per cent equality among the nine states, 50 per cent based on oil production ratio. In a region where equity is often contested, the openness was deliberate.
Representing Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, Deputy Governor Mrs Chinyere Ekomaru called on all nine oil-producing states to partner more sincerely with NDDC. “Renewed Hope must reach the creeks,” she said. And then the symbolic moment: Ogbuku announced that the 1.2km Kaa-Ataba Bridge – a critical link between Khana and Andoni LGAs in Rivers State, cutting hours of travel through the mangroves – will be named after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Mr Chiedu Ebie, said the Commission adopted a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and the Governance Advisory Policies, as approved by the Commission’s Governing Board.
He stated that the SOP and Governance Advisory Policies “shall constitute the Commission’s Rule Book and strictly guide all processes and operations within the Commission.”
Beyond Concrete. Outside the hall, traders sold roasted corn and bottled water. A youth leader from Bayelsa summed up the mood.” We have heard about synergy before,” he said. “But this time, they gave us a document to hold them accountable. That is new.
“As the pre-conference a day earlier, it was stated that the real test is not in speeches and documents, but in the months after – whether the community monitoring committees are inaugurated, whether the harmonised master plan becomes law, and whether budget allocations follow the joint priorities.
The Big Picture: Harmonising the Master Plan
Minister of Regional Development, Engr. Abubakar Momoh, delivered the federal government’s clearest policy signal yet.
No single institution can fix the Niger Delta alone, he said, and no more scattered projects. The Ministry is now working on a National Policy on Regional Development to harmonise the master plans of all regional development commissions into a single national compass. 192b
He urged all commissions to emulate the NDDC in producing comprehensive master plans, noting that a shared view of priorities, supported by reliable data, will help avoid duplicating projects while other communities remain unattended.
What Changes?
For years, PSD conferences were talk-shops. The 2026 edition is trying to be different. Momoh challenged participants to move beyond ceremonial declarations to measurable outcomes, with clearly defined programmes, responsibilities, timelines, and assessment mechanisms.
From agriculture and agro-processing to renewable energy, digital services, transport and rural economies, the Minister listed sectors where coordinated investment must flow.
The message from Port Harcourt is clear: the Niger Delta does not lack plans; it lacks synergy. The 2026 PSD Conference is betting that a shared governance framework and a harmonised master plan can finally turn partnership into transformation.
Here are the major gains:
A Governance Framework for Accountability
For the first time, the NDDC presented a Stakeholder Document to serve as a governance framework for its operations. Presented by the NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, the document institutionalises ethics, corporate governance, and community monitoring.
Ogbuku said building trust with all partners is crucial to secure their buy-in and confidence. “In this respect, we have established processes to ensure that a new institutional culture, anchored in sound ethics and good corporate governance, is in place,” he said.
He pointed out that the NDDC had a duty to harness resources from stakeholders, saying: “We have gathered at this conference to hear from the stakeholders to interact with them and rub minds because we realise that we cannot be planning programmes for the region without involving them at the foundational level.
Ogbuku stated: “KPMG, a reputable global business consultancy, has reviewed our processes to strengthen our corporate governance system. We now have a robust Corporate Governance structure that fosters accountability and transparency, backed by a clear and measurable set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track progress toward goals.”
The NDDC boss said the emphasis on collaboration aligns with the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, which prioritises carrying stakeholders along in the development process, and that President Tinubu was interested in seeing legacy projects in the Niger Delta.
In essence, the 2026 PSD Conference marks a shift from NDDC as a contract-awarding agency to NDDC as a partnership coordinator. As Minister Momoh put it: “No single institution can address the region’s complex infrastructure, economic, and environmental challenges alone.”
For now, the 2026 PSD Conference has done what many before it failed to do: it shifted the conversation from who builds the project to how we all own the development.
