Niger-Delta elite group, the United Niger-Delta Energy Development Security Strategy [UNDEDSS], on Tuesday, listed conditions that should be met by the federal government in order to restore sanity to the Niger Delta region and save the nation from further loss in revenue accruable from oil and gas.
This was against the backdrop of an emergency executive meeting held in Lagos.
UNDEDSS Secretary General, Tony Uranta, disclosed that the Niger-Delta is unanimously resolved to resist any further attempts by the Federal Government of Nigeria(FGN) to toy with Nigeria’s future by continuing to maliciously deploy the military in the region or attempting to deploy sinister divide and rule tactics against the region’s key Actors.
“President Buhari is advised to personally and visibly head a holistic solution-seeking strategy that will prove his commitment to a robustly sustainable peace in the region, for there to be true unity, stability and progress in Nigeria”, Uranta insisted.
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The UNDEDSS Scribe decried what he called “the ongoing farce by too many of President Buhari’s political friends and Ministers, who are wasting time establishing so-called Contact Committees that will not resolve pertinent issues sustainably!”
Asked what the FGN needs to do, Mr. Uranta said, “There’s no need to re-invent the wheel. All Buhari has to do is return to the very successful Yar’adua’s Template of 2009”, even as he admitted that President Jonathan failed to consolidate on President Yar’adua’s gains in the region.
UNDEDSS disclosed that the FGN has been made aware of how to resolve this avoidable crisis, whilst calling on the President to personally broadcast to the nation an indefinite FGN Ceasefire to be matched by armed actors in the region; Government’s commitment to the National Maritime University, Okerenkoko; and, the appointment of a savvy Special Adviser (Niger Delta Affairs) to the President among other things.
“If Buhari follows Yar’adua’s lead”, Uranta assures, “there will be sustainable cessation of hostilities in the Niger-Delta, and the nation will no longer be subjected to further losses in National Revenues or the crippling power shortfalls due to unavailability of crude and gas.