Posted by From FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
Former Minister of Science and Technology in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Prof Turner Isoun, has offered reasons why the Niger Delta summit proposed by the Federal Government must hold, if the desired peace in the region is to be achieved.
Former Minister of Science and Technology in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Prof Turner Isoun, has offered reasons why the Niger Delta summit proposed by the Federal Government must hold, if the desired peace in the region is to be achieved.
The issue of the Niger Delta remained in the front burner in recent weeks over the rejection of the proposed chairman of the steering committee, Prof Ibrahim Agboola, Gambari by stakeholders in the region.
But Isoun who is also the Chairman of the Bayelsa Elders Forum asserted in an interview with Daily Sun that the choice of a chairman should not be allowed to affect the convocation of the summit because the people of the region should take advantage of the summit to tell the Federal Government some home truth about the demands of the region.
Isoun urged the people of the region to regard the summit as an opportunity to impress it on the Federal Government that it wants excess intervention just as the various tiers of government share money from the excess crude account.
His words: 'Whether Gambari is the chairman is not the issue. Let us go to the substantial issue of the summit itself. If Gambari is there fine, if he is not there then the summit must go on. The summit should not be put on hold because of the issue of chairman. We should talk. Let us take advantage of the past issues to chart a way forward. There is excess crude account which they share but where is the excess intervention for the Niger Delta? These are the things we must tell the Federal Government. We need to talk and we must talk."
Isoun explained that though the summit itself would not lead to the transformation of the region, he added, however, that because the issue of the Niger Delta has assumed an international dimension rather than a regional issue the people of the region must be conscious of the strategic importance of the region to negotiate with the federal government in order to get a political solution to end the crisis.
He said: 'The Niger Delta issue has assumed an international status. It is no longer a regional issue. Every day the media talks about it, many have written editorials about it. This is because the Niger Delta issue is a strategic issue. We must negotiate for a political solution as everybody is aware that the military option is no alternative. The summit itself would not lead to the solution. It would be too ambitious to think the summit would end the crisis without a political will. The summit is a means to an end not an end itself".
Isoun maintained that what successive administrations in the country had lacked is political will, stressing that the sincerity of the Yar'Adua administration is not enough to trigger development in the region.
'There is no infrastructural development in the Niger Delta region. The Port- Harcourt- Bonny road is not completed. The East-West road is there. The Yenagoa/ Nembe, Brass road is there, the Yenagoa/Okube road is not completed. The Bomadi/Agge road is yet to take off and the Ammasoma-Ekeremor is not there.
All these projects have been on the drawing board but nothing has been done. They (Federal Government) must release money for the infrastructural development in the Niger Delta. They should build world class cities with all the monies accruing from the region. But all these depend on a political will."