Major stakeholders in the Niger Region have offered various suggestions on how to build a new and prosperous Niger Delta, at a forum organized by the Delta Online Publishers’ Forum (DOPF) to mark its third anniversary.
Former governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in a lecture he delivered on the occasion held in Asaba on Thursday, October 21, 2021 called for diversification in the area of establishment of industries, human capital and infrastructure development
He said this was needed to pull the region out of the red zone of youth restiveness and insecurity, pointing out that the issue of coming out of the red zone depended greatly on the federal and state governments to harness the economic potentials of the region to benefit the people.
Dr. Uduaghan said among the injustices meted on the region was the point in which people from other regions come to enjoy the work facilities provided by the oil resources of the region but would not reside in the region thereby not paying the tax to the states. “We have a lot of people in Escravos working in Niger Delta but they are paying taxes to governments outside Niger Delta We are being oppressed year-in-year-out in the region. Persons brought from outside Niger Delta for NYSC and are given employment opportunities, especially those from the south west, leaving Niger Deltans out,” the former governor lamented.
He argued that for the region to wear a new face, concerted effort was needed to diversify the economic fortune of the region to viable areas of human endeavours, using the proceeds from oil to build infrastructures so as to stimulate boom of other areas of the economy.
According to him this idea that informed his administration’s three-point agenda of Peace and security, human capital and infrastructure development, pointing out that his administration’s mantra of delta Beyond oil is a programme will go beyond the life span of any government. “ We are talking now of Niger Delta Beyond oil, we need to build critical infrastructures that will stimulate economic activities that are not oil related like railroads, among others, adding that the Niger Delta states must put up policies to stimulate economic development.
He called for sustained engagement in human capital development in the areas of acquisition of knowledge. “Knowledge has a lot of benefits and education is very key. A society where the people are not educated, I term them as people who are facing disaster.”
In building a new face for Niger Delta Dr. Uduaghan said there is need to stimulate informal enterprises which are the primary sources of livelihood for the people who account for 85 per cent of the population.
“Nigeria ranks fourth among cocoa producers in the world, and the Niger Delta region produces 53 per cent of the country’s output. It is an important crop – earning non-oil foreign exchange. Cross River, Ondo and Edo states are the leading producers in the Niger Delta Region, producing about 97 per cent of the region’s cocoa, yet the major processing for cocoa is in Western Nigeria, around Lagos, so major value addition takes place outside of the Niger Delta Region because the region has no industries.
“We have been very hostile in the Niger Delta to investors. I hope we can improve on our reception to industries coming to the region. We must be hospitable to industries.
“We must encourage people to have large scale farms in rice, sugar cane, cocoa, roots and tubers, citrus fruits, plantain, rubber, even as the region is blessed with many resources for aquaculture and forestry,” Uduaghan said.
In a remark, Delta state Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa had called for the use of Skill Acquisitions of youths to build a new face for the economic development of the Niger Delta Region.
The governor, represented by his chief of Staff, Bar Ovie Agas, said that issue of Skill Acquisition should be an agenda to the people of the region in order to create and build a human population that will add value to the region, to change the present narrative of unemployment of majority of the people, and dependent on the oil resources as the only means of employment.
He said all the nine governors in the Niger Delta have policies and programmes aimed at changing lives of people in the region, as he pointed out that his administration through its various policies on youth development has created a stream of future economic power house, and many are now employers of labour.
He said all the governors that have taken turns to govern the Delta State have invested in the lives of the people of the state, adding that the state has invested much in the security of lives and property.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the Chairman of the Forum, Mr Emmanuel Enebeli said the 2021 theme became necessary as the area which produces the wealth of the nation, over the years had not shown signs of development, as they had not gotten the true value of the black Gold that is in their communities.
He called for a new channels of development plan for the Region, as its filled with others resources, and a very beautiful waterfront that can be harvested for the good of the people.
He condemned the continuous dependent of the governments of the region on allocation from the federation.
Interim Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Efiong Akwa has called for a new master plan towards building a new face for the Niger Delta Region.
Represented by the Commission’s Director of New Media, Mr. Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, he said doing so would help to properly situate the region and get it focused on things to do that will position the region for all round development.
He said the Commission’s interventionist agency which was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo has contributed greatly to the development, stability of the region and transforming the living conditions of people in the region.
Akwa said the commission was established to develop, stabilise and make life good for the people in the Niger Delta region. He said the commission is part of aspirations to speed up development of the region.
He said NDDC had taken time to ensure that people-oriented projects are constructed in the states that make up the region and make the people feel the impact of the commission.
Akwa also hinted that projects are being commissioned in different parts of the region. He specifically said that the commission was in the process of commissioning a 1,000- bed hospital at Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital and is working on completing electrification projects in five kocal government areas of Ondo state, in the South West Nigeria.
He added that the commission would work with all stakeholders, saying he would build partnership with stakeholders across the region to reach the unreached and make life better for them.
A renowned activist, Ms Annkio Briggs, held the opinion that the region is geographically positioned and endowed with human capital resources, as she said;
“When you talked about human capital resources, we have it, when you talked about the geographic location, we have it. Niger Delta as you Know it, the people, the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta have no business with poverty.
“If today, after the struggle that we have put in if we find ourselves in a position today, where we are sitting down to discuss the way forward and we are talking about the basis how to get oil investment. How will our people invest when our people are not even participants in the economy that is generated. The people controlling the oil and gas privately are outside the government”.
She added that the region equally have about 20 billion out of the 66 billion barrel of oil enjoyed by the country from the area.
Also, Ms Faith Nwadishi, said when we talked about the Niger Delta with a new face, “we need to talk about a framework for implementation. We have so long talked about the oil and gas in the Niger Delta but we have not realized that even though we have an oil and gas sector in the Niger Delta, we don’t have an oil and gas economy”.
“There is no community you will go to and see striving oil and gas business”, describing as an indictment on the Niger Delta.
She disclosed that if in 1956, about 5, 000 barrel of oil was exported and today over 1.2 million barrel of oil per day and that is yet to translate to the economy that the region is looking for, “there is an indictment on all of us”, she reiterated.
Another discussant, Dr. Ignatius Nwanze Ezoem, former Provost, College of Education (technical), Asaba, ascribed the sufferings of the Niger Delta people to politicians.
“The problem of the Niger Delta, is not what is going to be said. What has been said we ought to work with it. The Niger Delta region, is a blessed region by God but today, we are still discussing about the Niger Delta. I am worried because the Niger Delta that we are talking about, has all it takes to be the Los Angeles of Nigeria”.
He noted that the Nigeria’s factor gives emphasis to theory than practicals just as he called on the Niger Delta governors to put on their thinking caps rather than go to Abuja, to beg for what rightfully belongs to the region.
Similarly, Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, pointed out that it was difficult for government at all levels to employ into the civil service, hence the Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa-led government, has diversified into skills acquisition for youths which according to him has yielded the needed results.
“It is not the responsibility of government to set up a tomato factory, it is the responsibility of the private sector to see the opportunity to set up a tomato factory, “government gives the enabling environment for business to strive”.
He said it is out of irresponsibility for anyone to tag Delta State a red zone, “Delta State is about the safest state to live in, in Nigeria, today. Delta is a free zone”, he stated.
He pointed out that the Colonial masters caused the agitations in the Niger Delta region, “They abandoned us, took our wealth away but when our boys started going to school and understanding the intricacies of the Nigerian State that we have been pushed against the wall. These boys are merely trying to resist and the role of leadership is to talk them down not to resist”
He called on the federal government to do the needful by way of relocating the Nigerian Navy to where it originally ought to be instead of siting it in Kano where there is no water.
“Let the federal government of Nigeria, do the needful. They carried the Nigerian Navy to Kano where there is no water. To start with, remove that Naval school from Kano back to where Navy should be in the Niger Delta area. There is no technology that drives ship on land”, he said.
