Governors in the Niger Delta
region have come under fire over the decay of infrastructure and
underdevelopment in their States.
Chairman of Nigerian Young
Professionals Forum, NYP, Moses Siloko Siasia blamed the Governors for not
fully tapping into what he called the economic potentials of the region.
He noted that the Governors were
creating an army of youths who may soon rise up against the zone.
Speaking with newsmen on the
sidelines of the just concluded Niger Delta CEO’s Conference in Port Harcourt,
Siasia stressed that the Niger Delta was economically viable, calling on
leaders in the region to harness the energy and ideas of young people.
He enumerated some of the key
areas of economic viability in the region to include human resource,
agriculture, oil and gas, blue sea economy, and ecotourism among others.
His words: “There is no society
globally that has advanced without its human beings. The greatest resource or
asset of every society is in its people.
“I have met a lot of experts and
professionals from the Niger Delta region who are doing extremely well in
different fields of endeavour.
“We must ensure that we identify
and engage them. Countries that have advanced such as China, Singapore,
Malaysia and others, looked at their best brains and how they can actually make
them contribute their expertise to engineer economic growth.
“As key stakeholders, we must
urgently harness the mass energy and idealism of our young people into
productive ventures.
“Agriculture also has great
potentials in the Niger Delta region. We have great soil for cassava
cultivation, and rice production. We can have three seasons of rice production
in a year without any form of irrigation.
“But in the Northern Nigeria
today that have taken the glory for rice production, it is difficult to do
three seasons of farming without irrigation. So we must tap into this.
“On plantain which is one of our
crops, we must ensure we do a lot of plantain plantation and also encourage
local governments to go into the production of plantain. We also have ogbono,
pepper, vegetables and many others. These are crops that can grow in our region
and we can use them for the collective good of our people.”
Siasia expressed regret that the
region has not done well in the area of oil and gas exploration and production,
saying the failure of the Niger Deltans to build the capacity of their people
has made other geopolitical zones to take over service and ownership of oil
assets.
He disclosed that only Bayelsa
State houses 75 percent of gas deposit in the entire country but expressed
dissatisfaction that it has not translated into economic benefit to the people
of the State.
“Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and
many other big countries do not have the level of gas reserve Bayelsa has
today. So we must be able to tap into the oil and gas industry and create jobs
for our people who have been impoverished.
“There are a lot of our people
who have been trained either as welders, civil engineers, underwater divers but
have not been engaged. We must prepare our people to take over the oil and gas
sector,” Siasia added.
While expressing dissatisfaction
that doing business in the Niger Delta was quite challenging, Siasia called on
governors in the region to support young business owners.
He further appealed to state
governors in the region to provide incentives for young business owners, suchs
tax holidays, creating an enabling environment and grants.
We must deliberately provide
knowledge, expertise for young people who are doing business within the
framework of our comparative advantage. Also, low digit interest funds for
young business owners, is one of those deliberate policies that are not there”
Siasia revealed.
He called on all stakeholders in
the Niger Delta to do more in the area of building capacity of their youths
through skills to position the region for more gains in key sectors of the
economy.
He, however, expressed gratitude
to the organiser of the event and the CEO FASTTRACK Consulting, Ernest Sorgwe
for putting the event together, saying such opportunity has resonated a lot of
hope for the Region.
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