I have always been fascinated by wine, even though I don’t drink much of it today. This fascination began when I was an altar boy. At that time, only the Reverend Fathers drank the wine during Mass. During my first communion, the best I got was a dip of the altar bread into the wine, and I was left wondering what a full cup would taste like. Then, one Saturday, while we were ironing the priestly vestments, the sacristan offered us a generous sip.
As I grew older, I understood that before the wine gets into a bottle, vines have to be planted. Before a single bottle is filled, years are spent tending to the soil, understanding the terroir, and carefully grafting vines to rootstock. This careful, unseen work is not the winemaking itself, but the absolute prerequisite for it. It is the difference between a vine that struggles and one that, deeply rooted and perfectly nurtured, eventually produces exceptional character and lasting value.
This same deliberate, foundational care is what Ms Usoro Akpabio, the Managing Director of the South-South Development Commission (SSDC), is demonstrating in her early tenure.
In a political climate often eager for the quick harvest of visible projects, she is playing the steady game, focusing not on planting flashy but shallow seeds, but on meticulously preparing the soil itself. Her strategy is a sweeping series of strategic stakeholder engagements, the essential work of grafting the SSDC onto the robust rootstock of Nigeria’s governance and economic infrastructure, ensuring it can draw the nutrients needed for sustainable growth.
Her first, and most symbolic, act was to fortify the soil against the blight of corruption. The visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was more than a formality; it was a public declaration that the SSDC would be built on a foundation of integrity. By seeking a formal partnership and instituting a zero-tolerance policy for financial crimes from the outset, Usoro Akpabio is weeding the ground before a single seed is sown. She is ensuring the commission’s resources will be channeled to growth, not lost to leakage, building vital public trust from the very beginning.
Simultaneously, she has been grafting in robust new vines for economic vitality. Her engagement with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy was about connecting the SSDC to the region’s most fertile economic terrain, its coastline and ports. The proposed joint working committee is like a careful graft, designed to create a strong, living channel for collaboration.
Similarly, her visit to the advanced solar manufacturing facility of LPV Technologies represents the introduction of a hardy, modern varietal, clean energy and local technological capacity into the region’s economic vineyard, promising not just immediate power but long-term skills and sustainability.
The early, deliberate courtship of federal power centers and security architectures reveals a leader who grasps that a commission of the SSDC’s stature cannot operate in a silo. The symbolic pilgrimage to the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kassim Shetima, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Reps, Tajudeen Abbas was a masterstroke in aligning the commission’s mandate directly with the heart of the Federal Government, securing a crucial blessing and a charge to drive “inclusive development”. Simultaneously, her outreach to the security apparatus, engaging the Chief of Defence Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the Nigerian Armed Forces, alongside the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force, demonstrates a clear-eyed strategy to create a secure and stable environment, a non-negotiable prerequisite for any meaningful development in the Niger Delta. This foundational work is further cemented by strategic economic engagements.
The collaboration with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is already bearing fruit with plans to reclaim abandoned land for training centers, directly tackling youth unemployment. Furthermore, a partnership with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) aims to power rural communities, a move designed to stimulate agriculture and small businesses.
Even the visits to core economic agencies like the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Nigeria Customs Service signal an intent to streamline public commercial interests and facilitate cross-border trade, ensuring the SSDC’s initiatives are underpinned by both economic intelligence and operational efficiency.
This work also involves the careful pruning and training of the vine to ensure it grows in harmony with its environment.
The meeting with the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, served as a crucial lesson in this regard. While Akpabio outlined her vision for growth, the minister provided the necessary trellis, directing the young commission to remain loyal to the national “Renewed Hope Agenda” and to intertwine its efforts with those of the state governors.
Watching Usoro Akpabio’s initial moves, it becomes clear that she is not a harvester expecting immediate fruit, but a vintner investing in the legacy of the vineyard. The true yield of the SSDC, in infrastructure, economic empowerment, and regional development, will come good. But by first tending to the roots with such strategic care, by building systems of transparency and networks of collaboration, she is ensuring that when the harvest does come, it will be plentiful, resilient, and of a quality that truly serves the people of the South-South for generations. The work in the cellar and the field is underway, and it promises a transformative vintage for the region.
*Finbarr is a journalist, recognized as an Edward R Murrow Fellow by the US Department of State
