Leadership (Abuja)
Golu Timothy
18 July 2008
Niger Delta — Apparently due to the controversy generated by the planned Summit for the Niger Delta region, the Federal Government, together with stakeholders of the area, yesterday agreed to drop the talk show.
But in its place, a presidential committee is to be set up to aggregate and articulate the entire demands of the region as an alternative resolution mechanism. The committee will be constituted and its comprehensive needs be submitted to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua who is expected back into the country today after a four-day visit to the United Kingdom.
This was the latest agreement reached after a meeting between the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and Niger Delta stakeholders.
Speaking after the meeting Wednesday night, the Vice President noted that discussion was still ongoing as the issues of the region could not be resolved overnight.
He noted that the word 'summit' had been dropped because of the perception of the people about the proposed summit, adding that the meeting was able to reach a consensus on the way forward for the region.
Explaining why the idea of the talk show had to be dropped, the Vice President said, "When you use the word 'summit', it is a problematic word now because the people feel that when you say 'summit', people will come from everywhere, different memos, sentiments, and they will say it is a jamboree. It is not really what they want. We will raise the issues, present it before the Federal Government and we will dialogue. Let's leave it at that point. We are not using the word 'summit'.
"Even the Federal Government, what we want is a discussion. Let us listen to the issues in the Niger Delta. Different people have different thinking about the Niger Delta. Some people think it is purely a security matter, some think it is purely an infrastructural matter, some think it is a political matter. Some think it is education; if you educate everybody and give skills to everybody.
"So, it is a complex thing. The committee will raise the fundamental issues. What we believe are the challenges and present it to the Federal Government and make recommendations on the way forward. So when the document is presented to the President, we will look at it and then move from there."
He lamented that the burning issues in the Niger Delta are not issues that could be resolved overnight. For this reason, he said he would still be meeting with various groups in the region.
"They are not issues you can solve overnight but the present administration is committed. The whole thing is growing like a cancer and it is going to consume everybody if nothing is done. That is why we are holding these various meetings. We must get to a point and move ahead.
"We cannot solve it overnight. That is what everybody must learn. If it was possible to solve it overnight, probably it would have been solved before some of us entered primary school.
"We have seen some mileage in terms of consensus on the way forward. That is the most important thing. We have agreed on how to move ahead with the Federal Government," the Vice President said.
He noted that the Wednesday meeting would not be the last as consultations with various groups will continue.
"I will continue to meet with different groups. I have a meeting with the governors after the National Economic Council meeting. But basically what we have agreed today is that if there are problems in the Niger Delta, what are these problems, what caused these problems, what is the way forward, the challenges, the issues? So we have agreed that a committee would be set up to raise these issues and then the issues would be presented to the President. Then the journey starts from there."
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, met with President Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday in London. The two leaders' discussions covered a wide range of bilateral issues, including ways to achieve long-term sustainable peace and development in the Niger Delta region.
In a statement issued by the Second Secretary, Political, in the British High Commission, Abuja, Mr James McLaughlin, the UK acknowledged the Nigerian Government's commendable efforts to bring about peace and reconciliation in the Niger Delta. He said, the UK Government would work with the Nigerian Government to ensure oil production brings prosperity, including improved livelihood for the people of the Niger Delta.
The UK has offered to assist in providing "robust accounting systems" and security to reduce the 1.5 million barrels a day of oil production currently lost every day in Nigeria.
It will also work with the Nigerian Government to identify training and advisory support, which would help to improve Nigerian capability to provide security in the region."
The Prime Minister and President Yar'Adua also discussed other bilateral and international issues. Mr Brown welcomed the President's commitment to the rule of law and his pledge to fight corruption.
The UK will continue to work closely with the Nigerian authorities to bring to justice those guilty of stealing from Nigeria, he said.
Mr Brown also welcomed Nigeria's strong commitment to seeing free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and the leadership it has shown in the African Union and other international bodies.
He also welcomed the Nigerian Government's continued commitment to economic reform and Yar'Adua's support for the MDGs.
Meanwhile, President Yar'Adua yesterday called on the international community to join in policing of Nigeria's waterways with a view to frustrating oil bunkerers in the coastal areas.
The President would also want to see the criminalisation of bunkering in which recipient nations would punish all sides involved in the illicit business.
He said he was already holding consultations with the aim of putting in place a system of tracking the bunkering of Nigeria's crude oil and making it an international crime, whereby sanctions would be brought on both the receiving refinery and the sellers.
He made this disclosure at a business breakfast meeting with UK businessmen and captains of Nigerian industries in London as part of his state visit to Britain.
The President also told the forum that as part of the overall infrastructural development in the country, he planned a long-term concessioning agreement with some companies to take over the management of Lagos-Ibadan, Benin-Sagamu and Kano-Kaduna expressways.
Yar'Adua noted that the Federal Government was planning to embark on a long-term programme of concession for the three key federal expressways that traverse north and southern parts of the country.
The president noted that the Federal Government's decision to concession the expressways was informed by his administration's general objective of infrastructural development in the country.
Speaking further, Yar'Adua said that his administration has identified the sections of the nation's economy requiring massive investment in order to stimulate economic growth, if given priority attention.
These, according to him, include power, education, steel, oil and gas.
He added that government has put in place legislation and regulations to ensure that independent power producers are not only attracted into the sector, but also stay in business.
Yar'Adua equally told the UK businessmen that his government had been working on creating an appropriate tariff to guarantee returns on investment in the sector.
On the oil and gas sector, the President noted that contrary to generally held view, Nigeria was more of a gas nation than an oil nation, saying that the country has about 184 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
He called on investors to partner with Nigeria in producing gas for exports and domestic consumption, adding that there were great opportunities to be exploited in the sector, especially with the government's determination to end the importation of refined petrol for domestic consumption.
On the rule of law, the President said that non- observance of law was at the heart of corruption in the country; hence his administration was committed to the rule of law as the only way to ensuring the continuity of the country's democracy.
He then informed his audience that this was why his administration was committed to fighting corruption on two fronts, by strengthening the anti-corruption agencies such as EFCC, ICPC, and Code of Conduct Bureau.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, said that citizen's welfare would remain the thrust of the administration's foreign policy.
The minister further assured that the government would ensure that all Nigerians abroad were protected, but was quick to warn them against engaging in illegal activities.
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