Sam Eyoboka
19 July 2008
Lagos — A FEW days before the Federal Government decided to jettison its controversial Niger Delta Summit, the National President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, expressed his opposition to the idea of a summit, saying it was no longer necessary.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, Pastor Oritsejafor also enjoined the Federal Govern-ment to re-examine its strategies for resolving the Niger Delta crisis by involving well meaning religious leaders from the area who, he said, could pacify the militants to submit their weapons as a pathway to peace in the area.
He also gave thumps down for a military option, as some people have canvassed, saying that his greatest fear in that direction is that so many innocent persons may be killed while countless others will be displaced.
"Military is not an option," Oritsejafor, who played a prominent role in the resolution of the Warri crisis, said, adding "the problem that will come out as a result of that option will be too enormous for the government to handle, especially given the terrain of the area."
Oritsejafor further suggest-ed that government should now refocus its attention at addressing the real issues of the area, by involving religious leaders who still command the respect of these boys and they (the religious leaders, together with a committee set up by government to harmonise past white papers on the Niger Delta issue) will negotiate an amnesty for the militants in exchange for disarmament in the region.
According to him, the cynicism that greeted the Niger Delta Summit stem from mistrust of government intentions for the area that has been described by UNDP as the poorest and most back-ward oil producing area in the world. The issues at stake are no longer new to anybody, he said.
"Instead of another jamboree that will gulp money and time, government should take another look at all the white papers of past Commissions, harmonise them into one workable document and begin implementation.
"The demands of the Niger Delta people are not too much." he continued "The people want massive deve-lopment of the area that produces the wealth of the nation or you allow them to control their God-given resources as it was done in the days of cocoa, palm oil and groundnut pyramids."
He blamed successive governments for all the "madness currently going on in the Niger Delta region," saying "it is a product of years of organized and sustained oppression of the people whose only means of liveli-hood- farming and fishing- had been taken away from them by decades of oil exploration and exploitation in the area. Different governments have come and made promises to them without fulfilling such promises."
Oritsejafor, General Overseer of Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta State, further lamented that the region's problems were compounded by the role of local chiefs, some of whom have misrepresented the interest of different communities as they allegedly corner the monies paid by oil companies.
He maintained that when the youths protest the neglect of the area by the oil companies, the chiefs would be forced to declare a paltry sum after dialogue.
Fuming with passion for the untold degradation of the area, Oritsejafor said successive governments had set up different Commissions of enquiry to look into the problems of the area and several white papers have been submitted to the different administrations and, yet, there are no roads, potable water, electricity, schools and other social amenities for them.
"Their children have no access to good schools. Even employable youths of the area are denied employment for one reason or the other. And when the jobless youths of the area protest their endless years of servitude, they are labeled militants," he added.
He also called for the inclusion of some militants in the implemention of a harmo-nised version of all the several white papers in the coffers of government saying, "con-cluding and presenting the issue to them will be improper.
"If the militants are part of the negotiation and an amnesty included in the submission, there will be peace in the area," he said.
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