During the campaigns, the President elect, General Muhammadu Buhari made concrete promises on the development of the Niger Delta. He pledged to restore the integrity of the Niger Delta by implementing relevant sections of the Ledum Technical Committee on human capital development…
The Ledum Mittee Technical Committee on the Niger Delta was inaugurated by the then Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on 8th September, 2008. The committee was charged with among other things to collate, review and distill the views of reports, suggestions and recommendations on the Niger Delta from the Willinks commission report (1958) till 2008 and make recommendations for government action to achieve sustainable development, peace, human and environmental security in the Niger Delta region. At the end of its work, the committee among other things recommended:
• The establishment of a multi-stakeholders committee to give quarterly feedback or progress report on the development of the region.
• Increased revenue allocation to 25 percent in the interim but with graduation towards 50 percent.
• Leveraging extra funds from other sources.
• Establishment of a disarmament, Decommission and Reintegration Commission.
• Amnesty for all Niger Delta militants
• End to gas flaring by December, 2008.
• Achievement of 5,000 MW of power for the region.
• Completion of the dualisation of the East-West road
• Improvement in education, health and youth employment in the region
• Establishment of a youth employment scheme for the region
• Establishment of regulations that compel oil companies to have insurance bonds against environmental pollution, strengthen independent regulation of oil pollution and work towards an effective environmental impact assessment mechanism. Make enforcement of critical environmental laws as a national priority. Expose fraudulent environmental clean ups of oil spills and prosecute polluters. End gas flaring.
• Rehabilitate existing health care facilities and provide free medical care to persons of 65 years and above, children under five years and pregnant women as well as provide free drugs to malaria patients.
• Rehabilitate and equip all existing public primary and secondary schools and staff them with well trained teachers as a means of reversing by 50 percent the current levels of WAEC failures in the region.
• The Federal Government should fully settle all persons displaced from Bakassi and forestall the ongoing dispersion and eventual extinction of the Bakassi people as a collective entity.
• Establishment of mechanism and institutions including National Minorities Commission; a multi-stakeholder Niger Delta Policy and Project Compliance Monitoring Committee; a Special Niger Delta Infrastructure Intervention Fund; a Niger Delta Futures Trust Fund and a Community Trust Fund for Oil Producing Communities. #BuhariAndNigerDelta
