Make N’Delta Centrepiece Of Dev Policy, Soberekon Urges Buhari

Secretary to Rivers State Government,Chief Kenneth Kobani (3rd right), inspecting a guard of honour mounted by National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Batch C members, during their passing out parade in Port Harcourt, yesterday

President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to make the Niger Delta centrepiece of his development policy in view of its level of degradation after years of oil production activities.
That, according to an elder statesman and ‘Senior Advocate of Niger Delta (SAND), Dr. Sokari Soberekon, is the only way of economically integrating the people and preventing another round of youth agitation.
Soberekon said, although repentant militants in the Niger Delta region were granted amnesty, the region still needs development, warning that if the economic isolation of the region was not promptly addressed, the region might reconsider its membership of Nigeria.
He advised the Federal Government to review upwards the derivation accruing to oil producing states from a paltry 13 per cent to 50 per cent.
Soberekon, however, condemned the tendency among some ill-informed youth to vandalise oil pipelines in the region, and advised President Buhari to tighten security around oil production facilities.
On the on-going ministerial nominees screening by the Senate, he suggested that if eventually cleared, the former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi be put in charge of the Transport Ministry, if that would guarantee the completion of the monorail and other infrastructure-related projects.
According to him, “Amaechi is the only qualified one to extend the monorail he started in Rivers State to other states of the country”.