Protest against NDDC management misguided, says ex-militant leader

A former militant leader, Osaanya B. Osaanya, has expressed concern that the ongoing feud orchestrated by some faceless individuals against the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku, can potentially derail the development plans of the Federal Government’s interventionist agency for the region.

Urging those engaging in ethnopolitical sentiments by prompting a core Ijaw agenda to sheathe their swords and embrace peace for the Ogbuku-led commission to effectively implement the core mandate of holistic development of the region, the former agitator warned against escalation should the perpetrators continue in their sponsored blackmail.

Osaanya, a prominent youth leader in the Niger Delta, pointed out that the promoters of the core Ijaw agenda, especially in Bayelsa State, were not happy that Ogbuku, whom they described as not being a core Ijaw, from Ogbia Local Council was named by President Bola Tinubu to manage the commission.

He noted that the anger of such enemies of Bayelsa and the Niger Delta stemmed from the fact that Ogbuku was passionately delivering the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda beyond expectations.

Osaanya, in a statement made available to journalists at the weekend, said the sponsors were wondering why an individual from former President Goodluck Jonathan’s local council would be given such a juicy appointment ahead of others from core Ijaw councils.

He said: “This parochial and primitive mentality has kept Bayelsa redundant in terms of development. The core Ijaw promoters have been pushing the evil and anti-social agenda that some persons born in certain local councils are the real Ijaw while others in different local councils in the same state are less Ijaw.

“The promoters of the so-called core Ijaw want to dominate and lord it over others they consider non-core Ijaw from the same state. This backward thinking is what they brought into NDDC, and that is why they are sponsoring campaigns of calumny to pull down the Managing Director of the commission, Ogbuku.”