Obasanjo unfolds development
plan for Niger Delta
From LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja
Wednesday
April 19,
2006
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•Obasanjo
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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In a bid to warm up to the people of the volatile Niger Delta
region, President Olusegun Obasanjo Tuesday unfolded what
appears a comprehensive development package for the coastal
states of the area.
At the inauguration of the Consolidated Council on Social
and Economic Development of Coastal States of the Niger Delta
in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he announced Federal
Government’s intervention in the development of nine
key areas in the region.
The initiative is part of a fresh intervention, in search
of peace and development of the zone, in the aftermath of
protracted crises, hostage-taking and violence by youths in
the region, demanding greater share of the oil wealth of the
Nigerian wetlands.
The talkshop, at which President Obasanjo presided, drew stakeholders
including, oil companies’ representatives, ministers,
state governors, traditional rulers, leaders and elders, youths,
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), service chiefs
and military officers.
The President set the tone for the day’s business as
he traced the history of the hitherto intractable problem,
noting that the solution called for greater dialogue, transparency
and networking amongst the various stakeholders.
He explained that the short term measures put in place would
be implemented within two years time frame, medium term within
two and five years, while the long term measures would take
five years and beyond to be executed.
The president who named the areas as employment, transportation,
education, health, communication, environment, agriculture,
power and water resources, announced the offer of about 20,000
jobs to the indigenes of the region in the three services
of the Armed Forces, the police as well as the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said the three services of the Army, Navy and Air Force
had been mandated to recruit 1000 indigenes of the area beginning
from next month with the Nigerian Army absorbing 500 able-bodied
men and women from the Niger Delta.
Of the figure, Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta states are to be given
100 slots each, Ondo 50, while Akwa Ibom, Cross River and
Edo states are to get 25 slots each besides another 50 recruits
categorized as “tactical reserve’.
The Air Force and Navy are to recruit 250 persons each with
Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states contributing 50 slots each,
Ondo and Akwa Ibom states 30 each while Cross River and Edo
states each will get 20 slots. .
President Obasanjo who announced the immediate lifting of
embargo on police recruitment directed that 10,000 new recruits
be engaged from the area with 1,500 slots each allocated to
Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states while Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Cross
River and Abia states each has 1000 slots.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he stated,
would create 1000 new positions to be filled by qualified
applicants from the coastal states.
Under transportation, he restated plan to dredge River Niger
as part of measures to facilitate easy transportation of people
and goods in the area, even as he revealed that the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NNDC) and state governments
in the area were to collaborate on the opening of creeks and
water channels to create more routes for inland water transportation.
He also said government was planning to mechanically clear
sea weeds in addition to a regional programme that would lead
to co-operation with neighbouring countries who share water
borders with Nigeria.
On education, the president said the Petroleum Training Institute
(PTI), Effurun, Warri would be upgraded to a degree- awarding
institution with officers already appointed to actualise the
plan, besides the setting aside of a temporary site for the
take- off of a federal polytechnic in Bayelsa State by September
this year.
The Education Tax Fund (ETF), he stressed, has also been directed
to assess what needed to be done at a community school in
Okerenku, Delta State.
In the area of health, he said Rivers State government had
agreed to complete the abandoned Auto Destruct Syringes factory
to create more jobs and boost healthcare delivery, besides
plan to establish primary healthcare centre in each of the
local governments in the area.
On telecommunications, he said government would meet with
the Global System of Mobile (GSM) telecommunications providers
to extend coverage to major towns and communities in the area,
just as he announced the empowerment of the National Oil Spill
Detection and Response Agency to eliminate water pollution.
President Obasanjo who announced the recruitment of 7,300
National Certificate of Education (NCE) and university graduate
teachers from the area before the end of the year also promised
he would personally flag off the N230 billion long abandoned
East-West road that cuts across major states in the region
next month.
The parley was, however, not without side attractions. On
some occasions, some of the governors, including Victor Attah
(Akwa Ibom), Lucky Igbinedion (Edo) and James Ibori (Delta)
and other participants got caught on the wrong side of the
President’s tongue with their presentations, which the
President observed were either solicitous or too general and
vague in the outlines of their plans and programmes.
For instance, the President cut short Governor Igbinedion’s
presentation for allegedly not being specific on its plans
and programmes. When the Edo State governor resumed his speech,
claiming that his government has completed a cassava mill
in Uromi billed for commissioning soon, the President trenchantly
interjected that he hoped it was not the same mill that had
been there long ago. This drew a bout of laughter from the
audience.
An apparently embarrassed Igbinedion was forced to quickly
take his seat, telling the President that his memo to the
assembly contained details of other projects.
Governor Ibori also got a word of caution from the President,
when he solicited federal assistance and partnership to execute
some projects including roads in Delta State.
President Obasanjo retorted in broken English: “No,
do your own make I do my own. So that you no go blame me if
you failed to do what you were supposed to do.”
This elicited a suggestion from the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun
Agagu, that an agency be set-up to look at areas of overlap
of responsibilities and co-ordinate the activities of the
various governments and organisations involved in the entire
scheme, to check duplication and waste.
An attempt by Attah to present an alternative plan to the
development of the area was halted by the president who openly
castigated him for not telling the audience what his government
had done to address the problems of the area.
Attah, who appeared angered by the president’s castigation
said he believed that the reason for the forum was for them
to rub minds on the issue of development of the area and not
for them to say what they had done to address the problems.
“What we are doing and what we intend to do are all
detailed in our budgets. I believe that this council being
set up was to look at areas where in a collaborative manner
we can help to make an intervention in the Niger Delta outside
of what the states themselves are doing. If you misunderstood
it, then that’s a pity”, he pointed out.
“Governor you are wrong”, the president shouted
at him, saying by complaining about the inadequacy of the
NDDC, the governor was talking about the speck in the eyes
of another when he had a log in his own eyes.
The group managing director of NNPC, Mr Funso Kupolokun, said
the oil industry operators planned to upgrade their spending
on community development, as part of their corporate responsibility,
by 30 per cent, totalling N20 trillion in the next few years.
Of this, he said N11 trillion is expected to be spent by 2008.
In his contribution, Governor Peter Odili described President
Obasanjo as the only Nigerian leader who had shown so much
interest and done so much to address the problems of the Niger
Delta.
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