2023: South-south elders, stakeholders move against APC

Elders, stakeholders and a coalition of socio-political and professional groups in the Niger Delta have begun moves to sensitise and galvanise electorate in the region on the choice of a presidential candidate for the 2023 election.

This followed a series of consultations at various levels across the South-south, leading to a resolution that the Niger Delta had been bleeding since the inception of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and was in dire straits.

The elders, stakeholders and professionals had coalesced into Alliance for Rescue of the Niger Delta Region (ARNDR) with the objective of safeguarding and promoting the interest of the region in the February 2023 presidential polls.

In a statement issued by spokesperson for the coalition, Chief James Komobila, explained that its stance against the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, resulted from the brazen acts of disdain and deprivation perpetrated against the Niger Delta people in the over seven years of the party’s administration at the national level.   

It noted that while landmark interventions for peace and development in the region such as the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB and the 1999 constitutional provision of 13 per cent derivation from natural resources were all initiated, established and implemented when the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was in power at the centre, the APC under President Buhari had deliberately taken steps to undermine them.

Part of the statement read in part: “The inexplicable delay in constituting a Board for the NDDC has no doubt given credence to information at our disposal that the interventionist Agency is bled by some influential government officials and top politicians to line their pockets and ahead of the 2023 election, bruising the psyche of the poor oil bearing communities without qualms.   

“Engaging in sleazy deals perpetrated in flagrant disregard for statutory regulations is not in tandem with the change mantra of President Buhari’s administration, particularly, its anti-corruption crusade and we hold the APC accountable for the bleeding of the Niger Delta.

“In the circumstances, the Niger Delta people are bereft of dividends of democracy from the current APC administration to canvas support for its presidential candidate. The party’s supporters in our fold mostly face this dilemma.

“However, while we review the situation towards charting a new political path that will rekindle hope for our people and guarantee us development, an immediate constitution of a substantive Board for the NDDC may assuage our fears.”