Daniel Idonor and Akor Sylvester
4 July 2008
Abuja — Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday joined other eminent Nigerians and groups in the call for the removal of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari as the chairman of steering committee of the proposed Niger Delta Ssummit.
This is even as President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday explained why the scheduled summit is essential.
Daily Champion recalls that the appointment of Prof. Gambari, a United Nations (UN) under secretary general as chairman of the planned summit, has been marred by controversy.
Apart from indigenes of Niger Delta who overwhelmingly rejected his appointment, some prominent Nigerians including Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, and leader of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) Fredrick Fasehun, have called for his replacement.
Only last Wednesday, Prof. Gambari announced that he would consult with President Yar'Adua and Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan to know the next step to take on the matter. He however did not say if he was ready to step down or not.
However, NLC said it has followed with concern the lingering controversy over the conduct of the proposed Niger Delta Summit, particularly the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Gambari, as Chairman of the summit, adding that the summit will be compromised from the start if the person who chairs it was not accepted by the people.
The body in a statement signed by its general secretary John Odah, in Abuja yesterday, said though the union believed that Professor Gambari, given his pedigree in the university system and international relations is eminently qualified to chair such a summit, the nature of the crisis in the Niger Delta and the unprecedented protest against his appointment clearly shows that he was not suitable for the job.
According to NLC, "we believe that the summit will not be a success if the person who chairs it is a subject of controversy, especially amongst stakeholders. Having made offensive comments in relation to the self-determination struggle of the people of the Niger Delta in the past, Prof. Gambari's suitability is questionable.
"The summit will be compromised from the very beginning if the serious objection of the Niger Delta people against Prof. Gambari, based on his antecedents in the Abacha Regime is overruled.
"If Prof. Gambari had been a controversial mediator in Myanmar (Burma) or former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan had been a source of controversy in Kenya, their missions would have been compromised.
"We expect Professor Gambari to know that where a peacemaker, arbiter or adjudicator becomes a serious source of controversy by contending parties or stakeholders, such a person should remove himself from the scene so as not to divert attention from the primary objective.
"We do not think that Prof. Gambari has neither ulterior motives nor personal interests to be served at the summit; he should therefore excuse himself from the summit. If Professor Gambari fails to take this path of honour, then President Yar'Adua should save the Summit's integrity by dropping Gambari and appointing a new Chairman who is not compromised and who is fully acceptable to the Niger Delta.
"It is an acknowledged tenet of democracies the world over that the past and utterances of potential public officer holders are usually x-rayed before such people are given new public positions. Prof. Gambari by his own admission of his activities/utterances during the Abacha era is clearly inappropriate to chair the summit.
"We hope that the current travails of Prof. Gambari will let others realise that the actions and utterances of military apologists will continue to haunt them.
"The NLC reaffirms its support for the Niger Delta Summit. The Niger Delta Development Master-plan enunciated by this administration cannot be implemented without far-reaching political consensus over the concerns of the Niger Delta people.
"The NLC is organizing a complimentary summit with focus on addressing the labour, human capital and social dimensions of the crisis".
Meanwhile, despite the outcry against the proposed Niger Delta Summit by some sections of the region, President Umaru Yar'Adua yesterday insisted that the all-stakeholder meeting will go on.
He said the summit was a critical first step and take-off point for the implementation of his administration's agenda for peace and rapid socio-economic development in the region.
He stated that peace and security were essential preconditions for meaningful development.
Giving reasons for the convocation of the summit, President Yar'Adua said the summit was out to seek across-the-board consensus and commitment to the crisis in the region.
The summit, he further noted, was necessary to obtain a firm and binding commitment from all stakeholders with the aim of stopping all acts of violence in the region.
According to a statement signed by presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, the sad reality in the region which includes insecurity and the ever-present threats of violence, the continual disruption of work by armed gangs, kidnapping of expatriates and indigenes for ransom, as well as the necessity and cost of providing high-level security cover for workers, have necessitated government resolve to seek lasting solution to the region.
In part, the statement reads: "As President Yar'Adua has often stated, peace and security are essential preconditions for meaningful development. One of the primary objectives of the stakeholders' summit is to evolve an across-the-board consensus and commitment from all concerned parties to end the incessant violence in the region and engender a much more conducive atmosphere for the massive improvement of infrastructure and social services in the region.
"The President believes that the summit is necessary to obtain a firm and binding commitment from all stakeholders to stop all acts of violence and criminality which have unfortunately turned the Niger Delta into a no-go-area for many of the construction companies and contractors whose services are required for provision of essential amenities in the region.
"The sad reality of the present situation in the region is that by the time President Yar'Adua assumed office last year, most of the contractors mobilized to sites in the area had abandoned their projects-some after collecting huge sums of money-because of insecurity and the ever-present threats of violence.
"Under these circumstances, President Yar'Adua considered it absolutely necessary to engage all stakeholders in the region in meaningful and purposeful dialogue aimed at removing fundamental obstacles to the implementation of his Administration's plans for the Delta.
"The stakeholders' summit is therefore expected to provide the forum for this dialogue and the adoption by all stakeholders of the Yar'Adua plan for addressing the developmental challenges of the region.
"The urgent resolution of the developmental challenges of the Niger Delta remains a very critical element of the Yar'Adua administration's seven-point agenda and the success of the Stakeholders Summit is central to efforts to fulfil the Administration's commitments in this regard.
"Much thought and effort have already gone into the conception and planning of the summit. President Yar'Adua is fully committed to doing everything possible to ensure that it yields positive dividends for peace, security and long-overdue progress in the Niger Delta. As far as achieving the expected outcomes depend on the President's resolve and commitment, therefore, the summit will certainly not turn out to be another pointless and diversionary jamboree as some fear."
As a prelude to summit, President Yar'Adua set up two committees last year. He has personally chaired one of the committees which have been engaging Governors from the region and other critical stakeholders in reviewing the Niger Delta Development Master plan as developed by NDDC and working out details of the implementation plan with deliverables by each of the stakeholders and timelines.
The second one headed by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan was to synthesize all previous attempts and reports on the resolution of the problems of the Niger Delta, engage all the stakeholders, including the militants and elders in the region, work out the modalities for the summit, appoint the chairperson for the steering committee and establish the parameters for discourse.
The president also assured that once the summit had held and achieved its key objectives of getting all stakeholders to buy-in to the Yar'Adua Administration's agenda for the region and guarantee the creation of the right conditions of peace and security for the rapid execution of the agenda, the Federal Government will move very quickly to begin the faithful implementation of the Niger Delta Development Master Plan.
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The Niger-Delta issues do not require professors.Do not require names of those who have in every way shown that they do not have the interest of the "aware peoples" of Nigeria at heart.And/Or people whose degree of conservativeness,only leave (them) with a higher degree of ignorance of today's requirements and pragmatic solutions.
What we need to move forward are people who are seen ordinarily as ordinary but possessing high interity, selflessly disposed and empathetic. Let us move far away from some and all of those who had sought just themselves; and making comments and doing actions that aptly put them against the chief interest of today's Nigeria, especially with the issues of the Niger-Delta at heart.
We all want to believe that Mr President's intention is a construction that would stand the test of time. Consequently, some of those worn out bricks he,out of not very clearcut intention, may want to employe in his construction, may cause unimaginable damges.Lets have some new wine skin, Mr President.