Jimitota Onoyume
6 January 2009
NIGER deltans have been urged to see call for the removal of Ufot Ekaette as Minister of the region as another ploy to cause unnecessary distraction in the region.
National president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr. Ndagene Akwu who spoke in Port Harcourt yesterday urged the region to accept the appointment of Chief Ufot for the sake of stability.
He said it would be unwise for the region to allow an issue of this nature to tear it apart because at the moment all energy should be geared towards development of the area. According to him, there was no time to waste, the ministry should be given all the encouragement to take off so that the goals behind the formation could begin to manifest.
If you remove Ekaette today then for sake of peace in the region you have to get somebody from Akwa Ibom And it is not enough to say the person should be from the state but the person has to also be from his local government and even as far as his family.
It is only when this conditions have been fulfilled you can say some level of justice have been done to an area. If not the removal will cause another tension and heat the body politic in the region"
He said since government had in its own wisdom created a ministry for the region, the structure should be given support to succeed. So issues like who should not have been appointed should be kept aside.
Akwu said he would have been against the appointment if the minister had been connected with any form of crime in the past. But according to him, it was not enough to call for his removal on account of age.
He said rather than fight over this issue people of the region should harness their energy to mount pressure on the federal government to do what is right for the region.
He said situation where allocation is skewed in favor of non oil producing areas should be resisted.
While urging the federal government to show sincerity in the development of the region he further tasked the new minister of the region"s ministry to endeavor to be fair to all parts of the region. "The new minister of the region should know that the ministry is a child of necessity, created to alleviate the challenges in the region and to douse tension.
Every kobo should therefore be judiciously used. If the ministry for instance is building a hospital, bore holes etc, there should fair play"
He also urged the new ministry to work in synergy with the existing NDDC. He said unhealthy conflicts between the two institutions should be avoided.
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