Date Published: 04/08/10

Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, please be in action immediately

We wish to first of all congratulate Hon. Godsday Orubebe on his new appointment as the Minister in charge of the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs. We equally thank the Acting President, His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for the appointment. This is a clear case of putting a round peg in a round hole.

  However, we need to remind both the Acting President and the Honourable Minister that the Ministry of Niger-Delta is a different Ministry entirely and it deserves special attention. The Minister is urged to start to attack head-on the Herculean task in the Ministry. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Ministry has a serious role to play in the long-sought-for permanent peace in the country through its being responsive to the yearnings of the people of the area.

  We need to remind the federal government of Nigeria that there has been a serious dilly-dally tendency in the area of employment and infrastructural development in the Ministry since its creation and the people especially youths in the Niger-Delta Areas have continued to wait in vain for the hitherto much publicized employment.
  It is a very simple logic that when employment and infrastructural facilities are provided in the region and loans are given to our fishermen, peace is going to be the order of the day.

  Meanwhile, we also urge His Excellency and the Hon. Minister to acknowledge the fact that the oil producing areas of Ondo State are the most backward among the oil producing areas of the Niger-Delta Region, no thanks to the past leaders. We felt that our being the most peaceful should be enough to encourage the Federal Government to always attend to us positively. However, we will always as ever, continue to embrace peace since peace has no alternative.

  We thank the Hon. Commissioner representing Ondo State on the board of the NDDC, Barr. Benson Enikuomehin on the numerous developmental plans he rolled out during the last stakeholders meeting at Igbokoda recently. We beseech the relevant authorities to allow him to do just that to reduce our hardship. Enikuomehin is also advised to work closely with the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs since he is from the Niger-Delta Area of Ondo State, and we know that he knows every problem the peoples’ of the area are facing. He can always assist in guiding the Ministry for the betterment of our people and our land.