Nigeria: FG Changes Gear on Niger Delta Summit
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This Day (Lagos)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Lagos
The Federal Government has changed gear over the proposed Niger Delta summit which it planned to organise to address the problems of the region.
Following the controversy being generated by the modality for the summit with some thinking that the talks may be another jamboree of sort, the government said yesterday that it was jettisoning the word summit and was opting for dialogue.
According to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, a committee would be set up to articulate the problems of the Niger Delta region for submission to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua who is at present on a four-day official visit to the United Kingdom (UK).
"It is a complex thing. The committee will raise the fundamental issues, what we believe are the challenges and present it to the Federal Government and make recommendations on the way forward. So when the document is presented to the President, we will look at it and then move from there," he said.
Also yesterday, militants in the Niger Delta struck once again at the heart of the nation's economy as they blew up the pipeline feeding the Tibidaba Flow Station belonging to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Italian oil giant, ENI Spa, at the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State
The new plan for the proposed talks on the Niger Delta problem was the highpoint of decisions reached at a meeting between Jonathan and the Niger Delta governors in Abuja.
The meeting was held on Wednesday night at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Jonathan, however, said yesterday that discussions were still ongoing as the issues of the region could not be resolved overnight.
He said the word summit had been dropped because of the perception of the people about the proposed summit, adding that the meeting was able to reach a consensus on the way forward for the region.
Jonathan said: "When you use the word summit, it becomes problematic because the people feel that when you say summit that people will come from everywhere, different memos, sentiments, and make it a jamboree. It is not really what they want. We will raise the issues, present it before the Federal Government and we will dialogue.
"Even the Federal Government wants a discussion; let us listen to the issues in the Niger Delta. Different people have different opinions about the Niger Delta; while some think it is purely a security matter, others think it is purely an infrastructural matter. Some think it is a political matter, others think it is education; that you educate everybody and give skills to everybody."
He said the burning issues in the Niger Delta were not issues that could be resolved overnight.
For this reason, the vice-president said he would still be meeting with various groups in the region.
"They are not issues you can solve overnight but the present administration is committed. The whole thing is growing like a cancer and it is going to consume everybody if nothing is done. That is why we are holding these various meetings.
"We must get to a point and move ahead. We have seen some mileage in terms of consensus on the way forward. That is the most important thing. We have agreed on how to move ahead with the Federal Government," he said.
He, however, noted that the Wednesday's meeting would not be the last as consultations with various groups would continue.
"I will continue to meet with different groups. I have a meeting with the governors after the National Economic Council meeting. But basically what we have agreed today is that if there are problems in the Niger Delta, what are these problems, what caused these problems, what is the way forward, the challenges, the issues? So we have agreed that a committee would be set up to raise these issues and then the issues would be presented to the President. Then the journey starts from there," he said.
President Yar'Adua had listed the Niger Delta summit as one of his seven-point agenda in his bid to address the restiveness in the area, which has cost the government millions of barrels of stolen oil.
The government initially picked former Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to chair the steering committee of the summit, but the appointment was greeted by a hail of criticisms forcing Gambari to throw in the towel.
Relevant Links
The attack on Agip flow station was another in the series of attacks by the militants along the creeks and waterways of the Delta, which have cost the nation the loss of about I million barrels per day shut ins.
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