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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Youth leaders from the Niger Delta have lamented the lack of unity in the region saying it uncovered a plot by self-serving politicians to keep the zone divided using issues surrounding the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The leaders under the auspices of the Niger Delta Youths for Development (NDYD) NDYD in a statement it issued over the weekend said their findings revealed that some politicians within and their collaborators outside the region, were determined to keep stoking tension and confusion in the Niger Delta using the NDDC.
NDYD in the statement signed by its Coordinator, Ebi Elijah, noted that persons behind the plot were against permanent resolutions of the crisis rocking the commission.
Ebi said such persons were responsible for sponsored criticisms against President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to clean up the commission through a forensic audit before inaugurating a substantive board for the NDDC.
He said the critics believed that they would not be able to influence the outcome of the audit with a sole administrator, who is directly answerable to the President.
“They realised that President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to appoint Effiong Okon Akwa, a sole administrator of NDDC, was strategic. Unlike the IMC that they could penetrate through any of its members, they have only one person, who is answerable to the President, to confront and they know it is going to be difficult to have their ways.
“Therefore, the only thing they have decided to do is to keep creating confusion and disunity in the region by sponsoring attacks on Akwa to force President Buhari to change his decision on sole administration of NDDC pending the outcome of the forensic audit,” the statement noted.
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But Ebi called on stakeholders in the region to be wary of such antics adding that it was time everybody came together to give Buhari’s decision on NDDC a chance to produce desired results.
According to him, NDDC is the cord that binds the entire Niger Delta and since the commission is not performing in an optimum level, “our region will continue to be far away from development”
“If the President based on the advice of the Niger Delta governors has decided to clean up the mess in the commission through a forensic audit, we should be kind and cooperative enough to allow the cleansing process to go on seamlessly. We should avoid divisive tendencies capable of distracting and derailing the process”.
He described Akwa as an astute administrator with the required expertise to pilot the affairs of the commission and facilitate the forensic audit.
The statement reads further “There is no doubt that the Niger Delta is facing some challenges. Our enemies always want to see us fight ourselves and whenever they see one of us occupying an office of a national interest, they want to use us to destabilise that office.
“Enough of this division, we should resist the temptation of fighting ourselves. Akwa is one of us. He has not done anything against our collective interest and the mandate of the NDDC. Let us give him a chance in the interest of peace and our region’s stability.
“We call on all ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta to support Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa to succeed as a sole administrator of NDDC.
