Date Published: 02/12/10

UNDEDSS salutes Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

Professor Pat Utomi has declared that “Acting President Goodluck Jonathan is a child of destiny, whose leadership holds the potential of heralding a period of positive change for Nigeria’s nascent democracy!”

Professor Utomi, the President of UNDEDSS [The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy], publicly revealed this divine destiny of the new Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces during a World Press Conference held in Lagos by UNDEDSS, the coalition of the Niger Delta’s ethnic nationalities and civil society, on Thursday February 11, 2010.

The UNDEDSS President saluted the “courage, even though belated, of the National Assembly that executed the political solution that has brought the nation away from the precipice she teetered on for nearly eighty days”, and prayed that “all stakeholders in Project Nigeria will work together to strengthen the nation’s much-battered psyche; in the face of recent national and international challenges.”

Speaking in the same vein, UNDEDSS Secretary-General, Tony I. Uranta, saluted “the resilience of all patriotic Nigerians, who for once shed all partisan, ethnic, sectional and religious differences, to unitedly call for the upholding of the 1993 Constitution, and supported democracy and the rule of law.”

Whilst supporting Acting President Jonathan’s speedy Cabinet Reshuffle which according to him, “removed dangerously anti-progress lawyer, Michael Aondoakaa, as Attorney-General of Nigeria,” Uranta went on to praise “the solidarity of the nation’s past leaders and present crop of truly professional leaders of the armed forces; and called on all Nigerians, and friends of Nigeria, to help Acting President Jonathan in his re-commitment to the Farida Waziri-led Anti-corruption war, the Timi Alaibe-led Post-Amnesty programmes, the Uwais Report-led Electoral Reforms and the Ledum Mitee Report-led Niger Delta Reforms.”

Finally, the UNDEDSS Scribe prayed “for the speedy recovery of President Umaru Yar’Adua”, crediting him with being “the first Nigerian Head-of-State to pay more than lip-service to holistically resolving the challenges faced by the peoples of the Niger Delta for whose common good UNDEDSS was birthed barely more than two years ago.”