Oscarline Onwuemenyi
20 August 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has said President Muhammadu Buhari knows exactly what to do to end the Niger Delta crisis arising from militancy.
UNDEDSS Secretary, Mr. Tony Uranta, who made this disclosure, said they had drawn up proposals that captures the interests of all the parties involved in the agitation in the Niger Delta.
In a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja, the coalition gave some conditions that it considered, if fulfilled by the government, were vital to the sustainable resolution of the perennial Niger Delta crises.
According to the statement, “President Buhari knows what, exactly he needs to do to end the crisis today if he so desires.
“He probably has not because he has allowed his administration to be beset with too many petty rivalries, too many individuals jockeying for putative relevance, and too many party chieftains of Niger Delta origin who don’t have the interests of the region at heart!”
UNDEDSS said that a proposal on the way out of the crisis had been presented to President Buhari over four weeks ago, after many meetings with the Federal Government.
“This is the position of UNDEDSS and other well-meaning Niger Delta citizens, who interfacing with patriotic members of the president’s inner cabinet and intelligence chieftains, have drawn up a proposal that should be ‘win-win’ for all parties concerned,” it stated.
It noted that, “This dynamically tweaked proposal is before Mr. President, the armed agitators in the creeks, the international community (including the UK & the USA) and other relevantly interested Nigerians like Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
“The proposal is hinged on four vital prerequisites, viz., the affirmation by Mr. President that there is no change in policy regarding the need to commence Matriculation of students this year in the National Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State; the rebirth of the Niger Delta Council (with its five relevant sub-committees!) of President Yar Adua’s 2009 template.
“And the guarantee of safe passage for delegates to any dialogue locations, after all armed parties publicly agree to a 60-days Armistice to be proposed by the FGN; and, the attendance of Foreign Observers (including Diplomats from the EU, UK & USA), to be invited by the FGN, to any such dialogue.”
The group explained that, “This proposal has been presented to President Buhari over four weeks ago, after many meetings between the FGN (represented at different points by the chief of staff to Mr. President, the DG DSS, the EFCC chairman, the DG NIA, the minister of state for petroleum… etc.) on the one hand, and credible Niger Deltans (including past special advisers to Nigerian Presidents on the Niger Delta, UN consultants and former apex ‘Creeks Generals’ of the three zones of the Niger Delta) plus prominent members of the 2009 Aaron Team that negotiated with President Yaradua in 2009.
“Ultimately, UNDEDSS calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to exhibit the patriotic and objective decisiveness necessary to end the ongoing crisis in the Niger Delta, by announcing his adoption of the said proposal now.”
