Implement 2014 conference report, Niger Delta group tells government
The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has accused the government of toying with the unity of the country over the way it was currently handling the issues pertaining to the Niger Delta.
Besides, a media group, South South Pen Pushers Forum, has called on the Federal Government to consider implementing the 2014 National Conference report, as the way out of the present imbroglio.
Rising from an emergency meeting held recently, UNDEDSS Secretary General, Mr. Tony Uranta appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to personally and visibly head a holistic solution-seeking strategy that: “will prove his commitment to a robustly sustainable peace in the region, for there to be true unity, stability and progress in the country.”
Uranta said the ongoing ‘farce’ by too many of President Buhari’s political friends and cabinet members, who were wasting time establishing so-called Contact Committees would not resolve the pertinent Niger Delta issues sustainably.
Uranta, however, harped on the need for Mr. President to return to the very successful late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s template of 2009, even as he admitted that Jonathan failed to consolidate on Yar’Adua’s gains in the region.
According to him, “The Federal Government has been made aware of how to resolve this avoidable crisis. President Buhari should personally broadcast to the nation an indefinite ceasefire to be matched by armed actors in the region.”
He added that the government should also show commitment to the National Maritime University, Okerenkoko; and, the appointment of a savvy Special Adviser (Niger Delta Affairs) to the President among other things “if Buhari follows Yar’Adua’s lead, there will be sustainable cessation of hostilities in the region, and the nation will not be subjected to further losses in national revenues or the crippling power shortfalls due to unavailability of crude and gas.”
Ozekhome, Agboti, Lori-Ogbebor sue for dialogue
REACTING on the development, a constitutional lawyer and delegate to the 2014 Conference, Mr. Mike Ozekhome said the recommendations of the conference are encompassing and detailed enough to see this country out of the present woods if implemented.
Said he, “In that report, we agreed that, either we merge all the states together to six regional blocs or if some states will not agree to be merged, we create more states as propounded to free the minorities from the grip of the majority because each of the states would realize the fact there is no longer largesse of any wealth to be shared will now face its challenges to get the best.”
He warned the Federal Government against allowing the current situation in the Niger Delta region to degenerate to a full-blown crisis, saying: “It would do the country no good and ultimately, it would be to the advantage of the Western nations that have longed to control the oil not only in the region but in the entire gulf of Guinea.”
He added that the West would not hesitate to send personnel and weapons into the Niger Delta region to support it against the Nigeria state because of the oil.
He lamented that as presently constituted, the Nigeria nation is built on falsehood where justice and fair play has taken flight.
In another reaction, a former Senator, Chief Emmanuel Azu Agboti, who represented Ebonyi South Senatorial zone, Ebonyi State said dialogue remained the only reasonable means to address the crisis.
Agboti said the only option to resolve the issue was through dialogue and not military action or insurgency.
According to him, “The Nigerian property, which is the oil in the Niger Delta belongs to all of us including the youths in the region. We all owe this nation the duty and responsibilities to protect and guard it jealously.
“There must be a better way to call the attention of the government to the issue and it is also the responsibility of government to engage the people in dialogue, without that I don’t think there is any better option.”
A Human Rights Activist and Itsekiri High Chief, Mrs. Rita Lori-Ogbebor, appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to stop further destruction of oil installations and put down their weapons and embrace dialogue with the Federal Government.
She said the Niger Delta youths must consider the environmental implications of the various bombings in the region, saying: “It is time we embrace dialogue because after all it is the people of the region that will bear the brunt of the environmental implications of the various bombings and destructions.”
She also appealed to the Federal Government to take cogent steps in engaging the angry youths in dialogue as the best means to address the crisis.
According to her, “The immediate problem in the Niger Delta and the country in general is employment but we can solve the problem. Let us have the peace of mind and focus to tackle this problem. There is hunger in our lands, our rural areas are desolate and violence will not help us now.”
The Pen Pushers Forum suggested that dialogue between the Federal Government and all stakeholders in the Niger Delta project, remained the best option to lasting peace in the region.
Director of Publicity, South South Pen Pushers Forum, Mr. Ambrosa Inusa Sule said the degradation of the eco-system through oil pollution from operations by the different oil companies operating in the region has done enough collateral damage and that the Ogoni clean-up exercise flagged off recently by the present administration, was a step in the right direction.
He said, “It is pertinent to state that the project under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme, for which money has been voted, must be pursued religiously and devoid of any political manipulations by the powers that be.”
He noted that as currently constituted “the Nigeria nation is built on falsehood where justice and fair play has taken flight, hence, the agitations by several groups in the country of which the Niger Delta Avengers is one,”
While observing that there was a great disconnect between the people of the Niger Delta and the Nigeria nation, Sule said, “It is becoming obvious that the country must sit down as a people and redefine how we want to live together. Worthy of note however, is to remind all parties that violence has never solved problems, but ultimately leads to fractious discontent and outright war.”
Harping on the various calls for restructuring, which happens to be one of the demands of the Niger Delta Avengers, Sule averred: “Fortunately, highly placed Nigerians, have also joined in the call for restructuring with many opting for true fiscal federalism.
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Please, what’s UNITED about UNDEDSS?
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