Emma Amaize
7 June 2008
Lagos — You and other Niger-Delta leaders addressed the press, last Saturday, in Warri and the manner you spoke suggested that the Federal Government may not have consulted the leaders of the region at all, despite all the hype about the planned Niger-Delta summit, could that be situation?
Let me not be misunderstood. It is very clear that I regard myself as part of this administration; hence I have openly stated that Mr. President is my first one, the Vice President, my second son, and therefore, I have a duty to do anything that will bring stability and peace to the nation for them to operate properly. But I am known for one thing, if I hide my feelings, it will create more problems, so it is better for me to speak out on this type of issues.
That is why I spoke out but that does not mean that we cannot still find proper solution to what is going on. Apart from my being called the Ijaw leader, I also represent, I also speak on behalf of the Niger-Delta. You are asking me about consultation, I want to say that we, the elders have not been consulted about this summit. Three weeks before this government came into being, it was mooted that there was going to be a Niger-Delta summit on the development of the region.
It was being arranged by certain officials in the Presidency and when we asked questions, it appeared there was no proper arrangement and that it was being postponed.That is why it did not take place in the first instance. The next thing we heard was that the summit was now going to take place with Ambassador Gambari as chairman. As leaders of the people, we have not been briefed, we don't know what is going on, and we are asking, is this summit going to be a summit of all Nigerians, what is the definition of stakeholders, we do not know the people who are going to be involved.
And why is that Ambassador Gambari of the United Nations, who has never been to the Niger-Delta, who has very little or no knowledge about Niger-Delta physically, he may be reading them from books, is going to be the chairman? That is why we are asking what is the summit for, is it a summit for the Niger-Delta people or is a summit for the whole of Nigeria, where everybody who benefits from the oil is a stakeholder?
You will realize that three years ago, that is 2005, a similar summit was proposed by the former President to take place after the release of the nine hostages, we said no, that conference should not be a conference for all Nigerians, it should be for the real stakeholders, the sufferers who are undergoing these hazardous conditions arising from oil exploration, exploitation, pollution, etc.
We said that the conference should be for those people alone but Obasanjo extended it,a situation where those who are not suffering from the operations of the oil companies became the chief spokesmen. That was the disagreement I had with Obasanjo. One, let us go back, in my objection to the former President's summit, I stated as far back as December, 1998 to April, 1999, the former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar had been holding meetings with us after the Kaiama Declaration. Popoola, Ogomudia, UNESCO recommendations on N-Delta have not been implemented.
These meetings were held and as a result of these meetings, a committee was set up, that committee was known as the General Popoola's committee to look into the problems of the Niger-Delta and recommendations were made by Popoola, including the stepping down of electricity in Yenagoa by the National Electric Power Authority, now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
This was as far back as 1999 at the cost of about N300 million. Can you imagine that until recently that was not done? Bayelsa state, which produces a lot of gas was left without NEPA and they had to depend on gas turbine, which they are still using today because the PHCN has not taken proper footing in that state. It was also established that tertiary institutions should be established, it was established that N15 billion should be spent on the place within three months, and we said this was not going to be possible, myself and Diete-Spiff said at that meeting, let us put this thing on trust so that the money can be spent later or put it in escrow account. Where is that N15 billion today?
The recommendations made by General Popoola were not implemented. What followed: Recently, General Ogomudia who was the Chief of Defence Staff headed a committee, made up of all the service heads and secretary to the state governments of the areas and they went round the whole of the Niger-Delta. They submitted a concrete report on the short, medium and long-term solutions to the Niger-Delta problem.
No implementation was carried out. Then, two years ago, the UNESCO under the United Nations sponsorship or the Federal Government must have asked them to do so, carried out a situation report on the Niger-Delta and it concluded that it is only in Nigeria that the people who produce the oil are the poorest in the world. And that is not the situation in Malaysia, Indonesia, United States, and Britain and so forth and so, why is it that in the Niger-Delta had been done for the people and the UNESCO concluded that the Federal, State and Local Governments of the areas have not got the will power to carry out anything. So that report again has not been implemented.
We will not accept imposition anymore from government. If we were consulted by the government that they want to hold a summit on the Niger-Delta, we would have raised these issues with them because the people are no fools, they are no woods, and they are human beings.
You cannot be imposing on them discussions, reports and so on and nothing concrete is being done. What is the summit for? Is it going to discuss how to carry out programmes, projects in the region? What of the reports of the 15-month of summit deliberation of Obasanjo. Nothing concrete was done, and so the summit will be taking place again, perhaps between now and the end of this year, nothing will happen and the people will continue to suffer. That is why we are saying that we have not been consulted. Recently, we were told it was the Vice President who is preparing the papers, Vice President has not told us about this conference or any other governmental organization.
Are you saying that your second son, who is the Vice President, has not briefed you on this planned summit and will the Niger-Delta leaders be part of the summit if they are not briefed?
Please, tell me are we going to be strangers in that meeting? We cannot be strangers. Let us go back, sometime ago, there was a joint committee, properly set up with proper intention by the President. The committee was made up of the youth leaders and the Federal Government team, headed by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Ambassador Kingibe.
Because of his numerous duties, he could not perform. The committee was not moving and the chairmanship went to the Minister of Defence. Nothing also came out of it, it was at that particular time that the Niger-Delta youth leaders decided to break away from the conference and they said they were not going to be part of it again.
The elders went into action under my leadership, we held a meeting with the Vice President and he said, he has now taken over the chairmanship and that within a month at that time, the committee will complete its job, submit its report, Mr. President will visit the area, and certain things will be done. What do we find? Nothing, they have finished the job, it has been announced that they have completed the job, what are we waiting for?
My question is what will be the outcome of what will be discussed at the summit. So as far as I am concerned, as a father, as a leader, I have a duty to draw the attention of the Federal Government to these irregularities. FG is confused. Can you imagine that recently, another group of youth leaders was invited to Abuja to discuss the same thing when the report of the first one has not been deliberated on? I think there is something wrong somewhere, there is confusion. What the people of the Niger-Delta want is massive infrastructural development.
If today, you are building roads, you are building canals, you are building colleges and so on, the people are no fools, they will jump into these jobs and no kidnapping, no pipeline vandalization, no question of crisis will take place and I have assured the Federal Government of this. We don't need a summit to get these things done.
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