Restructuring, Panacea For N’Delta Dev – Activist

An activist in the Niger Delta, Annkio Briggs has insisted on the restructuring of the present structure of the Nigerian state as the panacea for the development challengers in the oil rich Niger Delta region.
The Niger Delta activist who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt at the weekend, said the present structure of the Nigerian state poses bottleneck to the people of the Niger Delta by disallowing them access to their natural resources.
Briggs regretted that the report of the 2014 Constitutional Conference was dumped because of its far-reaching recommendations towards addressing some of the challenges facing the Niger Delta and the minority question.
She pointed out that the Niger Delta region, as the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg, has over the years fuelled the Nigerian economy through the exploitation of its resources, but there was nothing to show for the development of the region.
The Ijaw leader said the issue of restructuring should be treated as a national emergency, noting that, “Nigeria must respond to the imperative of justice for it to stand as a nation.”
She said restructuring was a right of the Niger Delta region, who called on all stakeholders in the region to see the clamour for restructuring as a clarion call, and noted that those opposed to the restructuring of Nigeria were the enemies of the Niger Delta who want the region to live in perpetual poverty. She said that the Ijaw people will resist any attempt to scuttle the call for restructuring of the country, which she described as the “hope of Nigeria’s future.”

Stories by Taneh Beemene