allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Why Niger-Delta Summit Will Not Hold

From a secret meeting of the Niger Delta leaders has emerged a consensus that the proposed Niger Delta Summit that has been in the draft for over a year will not hold, after all, Saturday Vanguard can authoritatively report.

M.T. Mbu, former Board of Trustees Chairman of the South-South Peoples Assembly, SSPA; Mr. Ann Kio, Ijaw Women leader, Chief E.K. Clark, a notable chieftain from the region, Chief Frank Kokori and Comrade Eva unanimously agreed that there is really no need for another Niger-Delta Summit as the region has over the years been bombarded by all manner of summits, conferences, seminars and the like.

"I will put up a paper on this issue and there have been other papers and reports on Niger-Delta. that chronicled the peoples agitations. We keep saying the same thing over and over again and this time, I will revisit history and how it all started," Clark had responded.

Mbu who was the national chairman of South-South Peoples Assembly said that the time has come to collate everything that has been said in the past about the problem and come up with a white paper which would contain what the people want from the government that so as to douse the controversy surrounding the proposed summit.

"We have taken a decision on this matter. There is no need for another Niger Delta summit now until certain things are done. We are asking for a collation of all the recommendations made in the past about the Niger Delta problem.

"When this is done, we should then present this to the Federal Government because we have seen so many summits, conferences, seminars on the Niger-Delta question and none of the recommendations in these reports have been implemented by the government. President Yar'Adua said Niger Delta is part of his seven-point agenda. So, we don't want talks this time. We want action. We want a collation of past reports and recommendations made so we would agree on what government should do. That is what we are saying."

However, Mrs. Ann Kio, an activist and leader of Ijaw Women in her opinion said many people don't seem to appreciate the Niger-Delta problem. Chief Frank Kokori, former general secretary of NUPENG equally toes the same line of thought.

"The people are tired of this ritual of constant summits. There are too many of them in the past. We want government to gather these reports and see things that have been said in the past. They should separate the chaff from the substance and do something with them. All these reports are in the library somewhere and they contain substance."

Comrade Joseph Eva, coordinator of Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, thinks the federal government deliberately wants to create a problem for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who is one of their own.

"It is not Gambari that is the problem. We don't want the summit to hold because we have held countless summits which reports never got implemented. We believe the Yar'Adua government wants to use the summit to buy time for their four years because it won't be able to do anything with whatever report would come out of the summit.

"But, it seems they want to create problem between Niger Delta and our son Jonathan. We are asking for a simple thing: implement the Alex Ogomudia report: The Niger Delta region should be like Abuja. That is why our boys are attacking oil stations. That is what our boys are saying."

Saturday Vanguard had learnt that a last minute attempt to soften opinion of those opposed to the summit was held in June 29, at Aguda Hall, in the Presidential Villa, by the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Some of the dignitaries said to have attended the stakeholders' meeting, involving Niger-Delta opinion leaders, governors and National Assembly members were former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori who sat near the Ijaw nationalist leader, Chief Edwin Clark, former governor of Akwa-Ibom state.

Obong Victor Attah, former governor of Rivers state, Dr. Peter Odili, former governor of the old Rivers state, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, who led the Bayelsa state delegation, former Minister of Information, Prof Sam Oyovbaire, former Chief of Defence Staff, General Alexander Ogomudia (rtd.), whose Presidential Committee report on the Niger-Delta is one of the reports that people are calling for their implementation, instead of going for another round of talks, Senators Uche Chukwumerije, Ewa Henshaw and Victor Edoma-Egba, president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof Kimse Okoko, former Minister of External Affairs, Ambassador Matthew Mbu, Niger-Delta youth activist and president of the Federated Niger-Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC), Chief Bello Oboko, publisher of Thisday newspapers, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, among many others.

Our source also said that there was political horse-trading before the meeting commenced with one of the governors and aides of Jonathan, leading a subtle campaign to help the Vice President have his way with the opinion leaders and others.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories

Today's Most Active Stories