By Francis Sadhere
A prominent farmer in Delta state, Mr. Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh has given reasons why there is still unabated crisis in the Niger Delta region, blaming it on alleged failure of developmental agencies and called for their reorganization.
The farmer, son of the first Nigerian Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh said the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) have failed to achieve the aim for which they were established.
“All these bodies have failed the people, hence we have crisis in all parts of Niger Delta region,” he said in Warri in an interview with our Correspondent, and called for their reorganization to meet the set target.
According to him, the decentralization of NDDC and DESOPADEC would give the people more peace in the troubled Niger Delta region.
“To me, these developmental agencies such as NDDC, DESOPADEC and even the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs have failed all of us and I am calling for their total overhaul to meet the expectations of the people. All their actions have shown that they have failed the people. Government may not necessarily scrap them but they should be reorganized in such a way that their impact would be felt by the people unlike what we have at the moment”, he said.
Okotie-Eboh advised the people of the region to come out and speak with one voice on issues affecting the region, saying that the region cannot make any headway if they continued to fight one another.
“We should all put religion , party politic and tribe in the Niger Delta aside and make a common presentation for once so that the world can take us seriously. Why do we have People go into partnership ? It works because you bring in different ideas . Club sides are always stronger than that of country’s team because you have a large house to pick the best legs that can do the job . That applies to every operation in life .
“There are too many groups in Niger Delta and President Muhammadu Buhari cannot talk to every group . The Niger Avengers started these renewed hostilities because of the perceived neglect of the Region and so they should form the rallying point for the dialogue, then each tribe coming should be guided by traditional fathers , religious leaders and leaders. We should leave the Politicans out of this because they are spoilers and undertakes”
“The way we are going today in the Niger Delta , the blinds wants to lead us across the high traffic road and that is very dangerous; too many leaders in Niger Delta today . I appeal to them to wait for their turn.
“We are talking of reasonable issues, it is not all the time we think of personal benefits , we should think of the future of our children. If our forefathers went the way we are going we would not have met anything on ground. We do not even have water to drink and so we need to repent for a better Niger Delta Region”, Mr Okotie-Eboh added.
He also called for a “Niger Delta Conference” where representatives from all the ethnic groups in the region will sit down in a round table and discuss the issues bothering the region and how they could be solved before going to the Federal Government.
He advocated that each ethnic group in the region must have someone they could hold responsible for the lack of development in their area.
He said, “Who can you hold responsible for the lack of development in Delta state? Who can you hold for lack of development in Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri, and other areas in NDDC? We know ourselves and we know what we want. If we have somebody that we can identity and hold responsible for not developing our area all these crisis in the region will stop.”
He also added that selfishness on the part of some people in the region has been the reason why the region is suffering, stressing that Niger Delta people who have been in charge of all the intervention agencies have not done their jobs well.
