Embattled Chairman of the Steering Committee on the National Summit on the Niger Delta, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has broken his silence over the intense controversy generated by his appointment, saying he is not desperate to retain the position.
Gambari’ s selection by the federal government as chairman of the latest talkshop on the way out of the crisis in the Niger Delta has been trailed by heavy opposition from stakeholders across the world.

A current Under-Secretary at the United Nations (UN) and Special Envoy to Myanmar, Gambari earned the anger of his countrymen over his perceived insensitivity to the plight of the people of the area.

He was said to have described the late renowned writer and Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and others executed by the Sani Abacha regime, as common criminals.
But in a undated statement made available to Daily Sun on Wednesday, Gambari, who described the criticism against his appointment as “misplaced emphasis”, said he would have to seriously consider his options following the spate of criticisms his appointment has attracted.

The statement further reads:
“I did not seek the position and I am not desperate to retain it. I felt it was my patriotic duty to accept the appointment and to discharge my duties to the best of my abilities. I have nothing but the highest regard for the people of the Niger Delta as an integral part of the Nigerian nation. It is my belief that the focus of this enterprise should be the Niger Delta but the perspective should be national while the international concern should not be ignored. Furthermore, I believe that with my decades of experience in conflict resolution and management, I could make a contribution towards finding a just and lasting solution to the problem in the Niger Delta. I could also help mobilize international support for the implementation of the concrete outcomes of the Summit.

“However, my appointment has attracted or seems to me to be orchestrated and relentless criticism including by some institutions, groups and individuals whose support are central to the success of the proposed National Summit. Indeed, the name Gambari has become the issue other than the attempt at resolving the crisis at the Niger Delta to the satisfaction of the people of the region and all other stakeholders. Should this misplaced emphasis continue, I will have to seriously consider my options and advise the Federal Government accordingly.

“Incidentally, one inadvertent consequence of this relentless criticism of my role is the undermining of my standing here at the United Nations, an organization which I have served first for an unprecedented ten years tenure as Ambassador of Nigeria and almost a decade as a Senior Official of the Secretariat.
“I think we should refocus the debate on the pressing issues of the Niger Delta and the way out rather than the continuation of the debate on the pros and cons of Gambari chairing the Steering Committee of the National Summit on the Niger Delta”.

We must talk
•Ex-minister underscores importance of N’Delta

Former Minister of Science and Technology in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Prof Turner Isoun, has offered reasons why the Niger Delta summit proposed by the Federal Government must hold, if the desired peace in the region is to be achieved.

The issue of the Niger Delta remained in the front burner in recent weeks over the rejection of the proposed chairman of the steering committee, Prof Ibrahim Agboola, Gambari by stakeholders in the region.

But Isoun who is also the Chairman of the Bayelsa Elders Forum asserted in an interview with Daily Sun that the choice of a chairman should not be allowed to affect the convocation of the summit because the people of the region should take advantage of the summit to tell the Federal Government some home truth about the demands of the region.

Isoun urged the people of the region to regard the summit as an opportunity to impress it on the Federal Government that it wants excess intervention just as the various tiers of government share money from the excess crude account.

His words: “Whether Gambari is the chairman is not the issue. Let us go to the substantial issue of the summit itself. If Gambari is there fine, if he is not there then the summit must go on. The summit should not be put on hold because of the issue of chairman. We should talk. Let us take advantage of the past issues to chart a way forward. There is excess crude account which they share but where is the excess intervention for the Niger Delta? These are the things we must tell the Federal Government. We need to talk and we must talk.”

Isoun explained that though the summit itself would not lead to the transformation of the region, he added, however, that because the issue of the Niger Delta has assumed an international dimension rather than a regional issue the people of the region must be conscious of the strategic importance of the region to negotiate with the federal government in order to get a political solution to end the crisis.
He said: “The Niger Delta issue has assumed an international status. It is no longer a regional issue. Every day the media talks about it, many have written editorials about it. This is because the Niger Delta issue is a strategic issue. We must negotiate for a political solution as everybody is aware that the military option is no alternative. The summit itself would not lead to the solution. It would be too ambitious to think the summit would end the crisis without a political will. The summit is a means to an end not an end itself”.

Isoun maintained that what successive administrations in the country had lacked is political will, stressing that the sincerity of the Yar’Adua administration is not enough to trigger development in the region.
“There is no infrastructural development in the Niger Delta region. The Port- Harcourt- Bonny road is not completed. The East-West road is there. The Yenagoa/ Nembe, Brass road is there, the Yenagoa/Okube road is not completed. The Bomadi/Agge road is yet to take off and the Ammasoma-Ekeremor is not there.

All these projects have been on the drawing board but nothing has been done. They (Federal Government) must release money for the infrastructural development in the Niger Delta. They should build world class cities with all the monies accruing from the region. But all these depend on a political will.”