The National President of the Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (FHRACC), Barrister Alaowei Cleric Esq, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider FG’s plan to scrap the Maritime University in Okrenkoko, Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West LGA of Delta State, as this can trigger violence in the region. The school, he said, is the only benefit from the FG to compensate the educationally disadvantaged region.

Said he: “The Niger Delta region was once a hot bed of militants activities, which almost ran aground the nation’s economy. And of course, we all know that the struggle was instigated by the criminal neglect, marginalisation, as well as decades-long underdevelopment of the region by successive governments since independence.

“It is a shame that the whole of Ijaw land, in spite of its enormous contributions to the national economy, has no single tertiary institution. The establishment of the University at Okrenkoko in Warri South West LGA of Delta State by former President Goodluck Jonathan was a right step in the right direction. The importance of education in nation building cannot be overemphasised. The former President knew its importance to the riverine areas particularly in maritime administration; hence, Gbaramatu Kingdom became government’s choice. There is no better location in the whole of this country than Okrenkoko in Warri South West LGA of Delta State.

“Rotimi Amaechi, the pallbearer sent by government to do the hatchet job should be declared an enemy of peace and progress. If the oil-rich but economically disadvantaged, dejected, marginalised and underdeveloped Gbaramatu Kingdom is not good enough for siting a university, why is the bulk of oil from the Kingdom good to feed Nigeria? Amaechi’s disdainful suggestion that Okrenkoko is not a better location for the University due to its difficult terrain is a scathing remark aimed at insulting the Ijaw race. We, therefore, view the comment as a racial discrimination, a script prepared by the government of the day and being broadcasted by Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to ridicule the Niger Delta people. This is a gross violation of all known International Treaties Nigeria is signatory and the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Government must curtail Amaechi’s excesses, if it wants to sustain the existing peace in the region, otherwise his careless utterances may plunge the country into an unimaginable crisis that would jeopardise our fragile unity.

Comrade Austin Ozobo, who is also a prominent Niger Delta activist and the national President of Ijaw People’s Development initiative (IPDI) shared the same sentiments with Cleric on the issue. In his view, the plan by the federal government to scrap the Maritime University at Okenrenkoko is a political script of Amaechi, Michael Jonny, Agiri Emami and Timipre Silva.

“It is sad and we are worried. What do they take us for? Do they mean we are not qualified to have a university in our place; after all we have the economic power of this nation?

“Why is the government treating us like slaves? This is not acceptable. Some clueless APC leaders have now turned Buhari into a barber’s chair. These are the reasons I don’t believe in the Nigeria Project. They should revise their purported cancellation before it takes different dimensioned.

“In the face of the looming conflagration resulting from the Federal Government’s decision to deny Ijaw people of educational right, we hereby call on people of goodwill and lovers of democracy to prevail on the FG to rescind its divisive and discriminatory decision to scrap and transfer the University to the North. President Buhari is free to establish as many schools as he and his government can fund. The Government is executing economic war of aggression against the Niger Delta perhaps because the region gave him five per cent votes.

“Buhari and his power-hungry aides should not and must not be allowed to remove the Maritime University from the Gbaramatu Kingdom. That is the height of executive recklessness, which must be resisted by any means necessary within the ambit of the law.”

They are also calling on the National Assembly to, as a matter of necessity and for the sake of our corporate existence, reject President Buhari’s proposal to remove the Maritime University from the Gbaramatu Kingdom.

“This Kingdom is host to many oil multi-nationals, including Chevron Operational Headquarters. These companies have been operating under the most conducive atmosphere in the Kingdom and they have not had any issue with their host over the years.

The excuse that the Kingdom is not peaceful for parents to send their children to study is most ridiculous, because not even the oil companies and other local and international business ventures in the area have ever raised any security issue. We see Amaechi’s uncultured homily as a ploy to remove the school from the Gbaramatu Kingdom and re-establish it in his hometown in Rivers State.”