Militants’ Group Hammers Niger Delta Governors, Says None Of Them Can Match Zulum, Alleges Waste Of $.5b Yearly

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State in North-East Nigeria is currently being considered by the armed rebels of the Niger Delta as the best type of governor for the vastly polluted oil and gas region. This is coming as the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), an umbrella network for the Niger Delta militants gave their governors a thumb down, claiming that that the oil region under the governors’ watch has become ‘’a failed’’ area.

Spokesperson of the rebel group, Cynthia Whyte, who dropped this bombshell in an online media parley said, ‘’the Niger Delta is a failed region. With a critical mass of failed political leaders who have all sold their souls for money, privilege and power.

‘’Look at the various states of the Niger Delta today, which of them has a Governor that can match the passion of Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State? Governors of Niger Delta states have become Emperors unto themselves, mismanaging about $500 million every year. Many times on projects which do not stand the test of time. And for which many receive handsome kickbacks from their favoured contractors.’’

The states of the Niger Delta within the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are- Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.

According to the militants’ group, ‘’there is a total zero check and balance on the activities of the governors (of these foregoing states). Go to the villages of the Niger Delta and see if you will see functional state projects like health care centres and properly funded schools. Or even vocational centres where local people can build and acquire skills. A lot has gone wrong and while we try hard as we can to stay strong, we believe push will come to shove in good time.

‘’You see, too much talking has never been the solution to the challenges of the Niger Delta. A lot is quietly being done to overhaul and re-energize the struggle for the liberation and emancipation of the Niger Delta. When the time comes, and when push comes to shove, what will be, will be.

‘’We talked and complained, and then NDDC was created – and then politicians (who were sitting on the fence while we talked and shouted) were called upon to run and then destroy it, making themselves, their cronies and their friend’s billionaires in the process.

‘’We agitated and even took up arms against the Nigerian State, the Presidential Amnesty Programme was created, and then the same thing all over again. People who sat on the fence when we agitated and went up in arms against the Nigerian state have yet again been called to manage programmes that we demanded.

‘’Now we are saying that all is not well with all that was created to fix the challenges of the people of the Niger Delta. The Joint Revolutionary Council was formed to unify certain factions of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and certain other key agitating units who all have played critical roles since 2005 with the arrest and detention of Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

‘’A lot has changed and the dynamics of the agitation for the liberation and emancipation of the Niger Delta has also changed. Every interventionist programme of the Federal Government thus far has failed in the Niger Delta.

‘’The Obasanjo administration-conceived NDDC has failed. The Yar’Adua administration-conceived Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has also failed. What the Buhari government failed to do when it came into office in 2015 was to inaugurate an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to oversee the usefulness and continuity of both the NDDC and the PAP.

‘’Instead, it went ahead to make appointments and inaugurated leadership for both agencies and parastatals. We have all seen the end result. The IMC overseeing the NDDC is on the verge of releasing a forensic report on the activities and operations of the commission in the past few years. The report is damning. The scale of fraud, mismanagement and embezzlement is unbelievable.’’

Continuing, the militants said, ‘’nobody would have ever imagined that that measure of sleaze and malfeasance could ever have been possible under Buhari’s watch. The same thing goes for the Presidential Amnesty Programme where a retired Brigadier General was appointed and then relieved of his appointment about 2/3 years later in early 2018.

‘’It took several complaints and petitions from concerned Niger Deltans before the Presidency could put pressure on the National Security Adviser to relieve General Boroh of his appointment. One glaring challenge with those who recommend administrators of the Presidential Amnesty Programme is that you cannot put round pegs in square holes or square pegs in round holes.

‘’While it is imperative to appoint non-career politicians into these positions, people who do not have an understanding of the Niger Delta struggle should never be given an opportunity to run the Presidential Amnesty Programme. That explains why we saw the mountains and degrees of petitions that mounted against the former Coordinator who was a retired General of the Nigerian Army.

‘’And that also explains why we are seeing the current surge of a petition against the current Coordinator, a professor drafted from some Diplomacy Institute in Lagos. They are non-career politicians and they all share one thing in common, they were both drafted by the National Security Adviser, General Monguno. Largely because they hail from the Niger Delta!

‘’But the fact is they do not understand the Niger Delta, its struggles and its agitation will continue to be a burning challenge. Monguno will not be National Security Adviser if he did not understand Buhari and whatever Buhari represents. Alhaji Abba Kyari will not be Chief of Staff to the President if he did not have a deep understanding of who Buhari is.

‘’You cannot manage or coordinate what you do not understand. Crude oil production in the Niger Delta has been on a steady and quiet drop for the past two years. People are not carrying guns and taking hostages anymore. Young men have left all that. They are now sabotaging oil pipelines with a little more finesse and refining petroleum products for themselves.

‘’With very low initial investments, the technology and manpower for such enterprise can quickly be deployed. Thanks to the efforts of these young men, petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are no longer scarce commodities in local communities in the Niger Delta.

‘’Hopefully, the technology available will continue to improve so that there will be less damage to the environment and increased wealth for our people. We cannot continue to rest our destinies on a failed Amnesty Programme and a callous and confused development agency that has become hotbeds for satanic corruption and aggrandizement.’’

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