From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
THE Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), yesterday, said the future of Nigeria should be subjected to re-negotiation.
The group said this in reaction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment on Wednesday that the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable.
It described Buhari’s statement to Niger Delta militants that Nigeria’s unity was not negotiable as “an old approach to the resolution of national problems.”
According to IYC spokesman, Eric Omare, Buhari’s reference to former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon’s comments in 1967 on the unity of Nigeria was no longer applicable in the present scheme of things.
“The circumstances of the present day Nigeria demand a renegotiation of the future unity and existence of Nigeria.”
IYC also posited that it was in the general interest of all ethnic nationalities of the country for the peace and unity of the country to be discussed.
“This demand is not peculiar to the Niger Delta region but cuts across all parts of the country.
“Nigerians want a renegotiated Nigeria that reflects a true federal state and allow people to grow at their own pace.
“Nigeria, as presently constituted, is suffocating and the federating ethnic nationalities can no longer bear the suffocating effect of the defective structure which hampers the development of the country.
“It is in the interest of all Nigerians to renegotiate the future unity of Nigeria.”
This came on the heels of another attack on the president over the recent appointment into the board of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which the Urhobo Monitoring and Development Group (UMDG) described as lopsided to favour northerners and Muslims.
National President of UMDG, Prince Kingsley Oberuruaria said by the appointment, Buhari has not given oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta region a sense of belonging in the management of resources from the area.
The group added that the lopsided nature of the appointments would create unnecessarily ethnic and regional tension.
“We are still shocked with President Buhari’s appointments so far.
“The truth is that such actions are not palatable. Our region, where the oil and other resources that feed the nation are coming from, is being neglected; both in appointments and development and this government is not helping matters,” Oberuruaria said.
On his part, Omare said Nigerians wanted a country that would be united on mutually agreed terms and not the present structure.