Osita Okechukwu,
Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), has decried the ultimatum given by
Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, to the Federal Government to
constitute a negotiation team on Niger Delta’s demands.
Okechukwu told newsmen on
Wednesday in Abuja that rather than engage in propaganda, Clark should support
President Muhammadu Bahari’s administration to develop Nigeria.
Clark had at a news conference
recently, asked the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, constitute a
negotiation team to engage in talks with the Niger Delta stakeholders before
August 1.
But Okechukwu advised Clark to
ask senators from Niger Delta what was delaying the signing of the loan to
start projects in the region as promised by the Federal Government.
He added that the Buhari
government was working to ensure the delivery of true democratic dividends to
Nigerians.
Okechukwu said that Nigerians had
the right to vote out the APC government in 2019 if they were not satisfied with
its performance.
“We were given a four-year tenure to start with, and if it suits the Nigerian people, they will re-elect the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari again or any other candidate in the APC.
“I was not very impressed with Chief Clark, a man I have respect for, because he is sounding as if everybody is opposed to devolution of power’’.
Okechukwu noted that that Clark
during the PDP administration, had the opportunity to better the lots of the
people of Niger Delta, but never did.
He said that the elder statesman rather “started building a private university, married a new wife and was enjoying himself without showing seriousness in matters affecting the region and its people”.
He maintained that Buhari’s
administration, though inherited almost a failed state, determined to first,
restructure the country's substructure.
According to him, most states’
governments are salaries and pension arrears for 18 months when the
administration came in.
The VON director-general said the
Buhari administration had within two years of its tenure, spent about
N1trillion in bail-out funds to address issues of salary arrears in states.
He added that the administration
through a 500 million dollars foreign loan, rehabilitated roads in the Niger
Delta when Clark never remembered to fix.
“Clark was there on May 13, 2010 in President Jonathan’s regime when the Minister of Finance and Economy Co-ordinator, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Eweala, told Nigerians that they had awarded 23 billion dollars for three refineries.
“The refineries were to be in Bayelsa, Lagos and in Kogi states; we didn’t see the 23 billion dollars and we didn’t see the refineries,” Okechukwu stated.
He said the Clark should be asked
where the three refineries were and why the East-West road was not completed
and the coast line not done as promised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
government.
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