…Resolve to mount pressure on governors
…Ask FG to stop invasion of communities
Youth leaders of Niger Delta ethnic nationalities, Wednesday, criticised governors from their region for not doing enough to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in resolving the crisis in the Niger Delta.
The leaders, who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, after an emergency meeting at Ijaw House, urged the governors to synergise and evolve an economic plan to rescue the region from poverty and militancy.
The leaders who met under the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Leaders Council (NDENLC) described as unacceptable the silence of the governors and their nonchalant attitude towards some burning issues of development in the region.
The meeting was attended by the leaders of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide, Udengs Eradiri; Urhobo Youth Council (UYC), Terry Obieh; Urhobo Progressives Union, Esimaje Aweni; Ibibio Youth Council (IYC), Imo Okoko; Efik National Youth (ENY), Capt. Bassey Henshaw among leaders from Anioma, Ogoni, Edo and others.
Eradiri, who spoke after the meeting, said the leaders resolved to mount pressure on the Niger Delta governors to undertake practical steps to lift the region out of poverty and militancy.
He said: “The governors in the Niger Delta should do more internally to resolve the militancy in the region. They should set up an economic plan to take the region out of poverty. We are saying this because liberation itself cannot come externally.
“It must be internally driven. What are the Niger Delta governors doing on their own to end the crisis? Everybody is just waiting for the Federal Government. State governors in this region must meet, engage stakeholders and begin to resolve the problem.
“The country is facing economic crisis, what are our state governors doing to come up with an economic plan to take this region out of poverty and militancy. As we speak, the condition in the region is getting out of hands. There is widespread poverty and criminality is going up every day.
“We are suffering more from what is happening in the region. All our youths are unemployed and things are getting from bad to worse. So, we call on the governors to provide economic, political and developmental leadership, so that when we are talking about the federal government, we would have started our own.
“We are too rich to be poor. We talk about diversification through agriculture, what are our governors doing on that area? So that we can use rice cultivation, fish farming and cassava to change the economic situation in the country”.
Eradiri also said the leaders called on the Federal Government to quickly set up its negotiation team to immediately resolve the crisis adding that the silence of the government after meeting with the Niger Delta stakeholders on November 1 was worrisome.
He further said the leaders condemned invasion of Niger Delta communities by soldiers and appealed to the government to adopt better and more civil ways of resolving the crisis in the region.
“In fact, intelligence apparatus has recorded more success than military option. The casualties are more of women and children”, he said.
He added: “The government should quickly resolve the legal issues surrounding the maritime universities. So that youths will no longer use that as an excuse to attack oil installations.
“We call on the Federal Government to look at the EPZ projects in Delta State, the Brass Fertilizer Project in Bayelsa, the Bonny Phase Seven Project in Rivers State as well as the Quantum Project in Akwa Ibom.
“The government should integrate the EPZ project because it will create over 150,000 jobs for young people. The Brass Fertilizer Project could create close to 100,000 jobs; other projects will create jobs for young people. If you are talking about revolution in the gas sector then you must first integrate existing projects into your plans because all these projects are gas-driven projects.
“Sea ports in the Niger Delta must be activated so that jobs can be created. There is a port in Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, but they are lying fallow. Yet there are over 5000 vessels waiting for berthing space in Lagos when the ports in this part of the country are empty. Any time a vessel gets to a port it creates over 10,000 jobs overnight.”
