Niger Delta Delegates Insist On Resource Control

he Niger Delta delegates at the National Conference have warned that there is no going back on the issue of a 100 per cent ownership of the resources from the region. The delegates, who spoke at a forum organised by the Niger Delta Self Determination Movement in Port Harcourt on Friday, said nothing would make them relent in their call for resources control. One of the delegates, Ms. Ann Kio-Briggs, called on the people of the region to resist some Nigerians kicking against the interest of the Niger Delta at the conference. Kio-Briggs recalled that the Niger Delta was promised 18 per cent oil derivation during the past conference and wondered why the region was getting only 13 per cent derivation from the nation’s oil revenue. She called on the people of the region to be part of the crusade for resource control, adding that silence on the matter could make government silent on the issues affecting Niger Delta.

“If we could remember at the last conference before this one, they actually gave the Niger Delta oil producing states 18 per cent as derivation and you must ask yourself how come we are still receiving 13 per cent? “If that conference had agreed on 18 per cent, it is you (Niger Delta people) that will make what we have agreed to manifest; it is you that will determine that we call on the Federal Government, the senators, lawmakers or whatever they call themselves that they should give us the 18 per cent he agreed on. “If you don’t do that, if you don’t play that role, it will just be on paper just like every other conference has been on paper,” she said. Also in a communiqué signed by the NDSDM’s Information Officer, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, and Research Officer, Mr. Biebele Arimie, the forum said it was necessary to correct the misleading and erroneous attempt by the North to distort facts and figures. The forum described the position of the North on resource control as an attempt to misinform and misdirect the younger generation and other unsuspecting Nigerians, by deliberately re-writing the history of the relationships between the northern and southern parts of Nigeria According to the communiqué, “Nigeria is said to be a federation but it is operating more as a unitary state to the disadvantage of the Niger Delta people.” “The military and northern Nigeria-inspired 1999 Constitution was deliberately crafted with the intent and purpose of expropriating our lands and mineral resources for the benefit of the North, particularly, through the inclusion and continuous invocation of Section 44(3).” Source: Punch