{"id":12035,"date":"2016-10-22T06:28:18","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T06:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12035"},"modified":"2016-10-22T06:30:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T06:30:20","slug":"niger-delta-we-have-made-mistakes-i-apologise-for-the-collective-negligence-and-leadership-failure-gowon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12035","title":{"rendered":"NIGER DELTA: &#8220;We have made mistakes. I apologise for the collective negligence and leadership failure&#8221; Gowon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11213&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yakubu Gowon, former military head of state of Nigeria, has apologised to Niger Delta communities for the neglect they have suffered in the hands of the successive governments.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gowon, who was the special guest of honour at the premiere of \u2018Oloibiri\u2019, a movie about the Niger Delta, urged the government across all levels to be humble enough to dialogue with aggrieved people.<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11082\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"Gowan\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan-300x202.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan-272x182.jpg 272w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatching through the movie, I cannot help but feel with the plight of Oloibori and all other oil-producing communities and their people in the land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree that the movie mirrors a clear manifestation of the collective negligence and failure of leadership in successive governments in our country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLooking back today, I must confess here that the people of Oloibiri have felt badly neglected and of course, they are hurt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must, however, acknowledge as a nation and as a people that along the way, we have made mistakes. Clearly, Oloibiri community has not been treated fairly; they deserve or sympathy, consideration, and collective resolve to develop this once vibrant community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 82-year-old Plateau indigene also urged the government to seek ways of redressing the wrongs of the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI move as a former head of state to offer the nation\u2019s profound regrets and my personal apology to the good people of Oloibiri with the prayers to the present and future government at all levels in the land to work towards redressing the wrongs of the past to these people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also request the people of Oloibiri to forgive the oversight and mistakes of the government and the corporate government of Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have great faith in our youth in the Delta region. The future is yours; if you keep it whole, you will be able to build a better country than we would leave to you today. It is up to you to love your country, defend it whether good or bad but try to make it right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the Delta region, do not go on destroying all these facilities that you would need to develop. For God\u2019s sake, stop doing that, because you are hurting yourself and you are hurting the nation as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The movie premiere, which held on Thursday at the Muson centre,Onikan, had dignitaries like Onyeka Onwenu, Chris Anyaoku, Olu Jacobs and Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, in attendance. Source: TheCable<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11213&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yakubu Gowon, former military head of state of Nigeria, has apologised to Niger Delta communities for the neglect they have suffered in the hands of the successive governments. Gowon, who was the special guest of honour at the premiere of \u2018Oloibiri\u2019, a movie about the Niger Delta, urged the government across all levels to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[201,330,2788],"class_list":["post-12035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-niger-delta","tag-oloibiri","tag-yakubu-gowon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Gowan.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-387","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12037,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035\/revisions\/12037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}