Senator Maeba Wants Sustainable Development For N’Delta

The member representing Rivers South East senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Lee Maeba has advocated an effective social security system in Ogoniland and the entire Niger Delta region to guarantee sustainable development in the area.

Senator Maeba made the call recently while addressing a delegation of Ogoni Journalists Platform (OJP) who paid him a courtesy call at his Port Harcourt residence.

The federal lawmaker noted that the people of Ogoni and indeed the Niger Delta have made enough sacrifice to sustain the country economically over the past six decades but regretted that the people have little or nothing to show for it.

He particularly noted that the Ogoni people are supposed to benefit from their non-violent struggle by now, contending that no Ogoni-man has been considered for any position in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Board, the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry and other interventionist agencies set up to address the gross under-development in the Niger Delta region.

Senator Maeba, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Down Stream sector) and Rivers State Representative on the Constitution Review Committee opined that the volatile situation experienced in the Niger Delta some years back was due largely to long years of neglect and maginalisation and called on the federal government to translate the Amnesty granted to the militants into sustainable development of the region.

Also speaking, the state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Chairman and Chairman PDP South East Senatorial District, Mr. Cyril Dum Witeh advised the Ogonis especially youths to pursue educational programmes that would make them employable and stressed the need for OJP to project Ogoni in proper perspective.

Earlier, the Chairman of OJP, Mr. Barivule Akpo said that the body was formed to promote development in Ogoniland and check negative reports about Ogoni and its people among others.