An Industrialist and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Tony Amechi, has urged the Federal Government to correct the marginalisation of the Ndokwa nation, give the people of the three local government areas a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project.

He added that the Ukwani and Ndoshimili speaking people of Delta State have endured ‘criminal marginalisation’ since Nigeria became an independent nation.

Chief Amechi, the Ajuwa of Aboh Kingdom stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the presentation of memorandum on behalf of the Aboh Traditional Council at the public hearing on the floor of the Nigerian Senate on the bill sponsored by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, for the establishment of a Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, Aboh.

Chief Amechi, a notable philanthropist who doubles as the Onwa of Umusadege, Utagba-Uno averred that since the creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, no Ndokwa man or woman have been considered fit for appointment as the Chairman, Managing Director or other Executive position on the board of the development agency.

He noted that successive administrations have bypassed the Ndokwa people to appoint members of the NDDC board from other ethnic groups in the region. In his words he noted, “how else can a people be insulted and humiliated than that?”

Amechi, the Chairman of the Tony Amechi Foundation, TAF added that, in the recent history of the traditional councils in Nigeria, no kingdom among the ones recognised by the FG is older or have a richer history than Aboh Kingdom which also suffered the invasion of the British imperialist in the both 18th and 19th century. He queried the rationale behind the denial of the Obi of Aboh Kingdom a Pro-Chancellor seat by the FG like it does to “even monarchs whose Kingdoms are younger and less productive” than the Aboh in Ndokwa nation.

Chief Amechi decried the deliberate abandonment of Ndokwa nation in all sphere of life, adding that no government in Nigeria has ever deemed it good to appoint a Minister: junior or senior from any of the three Local Government Areas of the nation owing to the fact that the people are not violently disposed to any national issues.

The FG, the Industrialist added has never deemed it good to appoint a registrar or vice Chancellor from the Ndokwa extraction due to the age-long neglect of “a people whose land hosts the largest gas plant in West Africa with over seventeen oil companies plying their trade in oil exploration within the three Local government areas of Ndokwa nation.

Chief Amechi,bwho owns a consortium of companies most of which are located in Nigeria and other African countries and United States of America, said the way out this anomaly is for President Muhammadu Buhari ‘s administration to continue to right the wrongs of the past by massively and favourably employing the productive population from Ndokwa nation into the civil service, appoint an Ndokwa man into the board of the NDDC and also consider appointing the Obi of Aboh Kingdom as Pro-chancellor of a major Federal University.

“As a prominent leader of thought,” Chief Amechi said, “Nothing should stop Ndokwa nation, as a major contributor to Nigeria’s oil and gas wealth, from producing the Managing Director of the NNPC, NDPC, NDDC Chairman and some other major office holders in the aforementioned industry.”

“Nigeria is not an exclusive preserve of the three major tribes alone, no group is more Nigerian than the other, therefore the time has come for a practicable union that will fan the embers of inclusiveness and equitable egalitarianism. Every king is great in his kingdom, the Obi of Aboh is one of the greatest Kings in Nigeria and he should be so honoured and given his rightful place in the country.

“We have watched over the years how governments across tiers rode roughshod on the minority tribes in the country including Ndokwa nation, but the time is here to correct the aforesaid self- inflicted irregularities. Agip is operating in Ndokwa land yet, our people live perpetually in darkness, while the gas from Ndokwa is used to light up other states including Abuja. All of these injustices need to be addressed and restitution made by a way of providing an equitable environment for all groups to grow,” the Ajuwa of Aboh Kingdom stated, adding that, until the FG does the right thing at the right time, citizens won’t stop agitating, stressing that: “It will remain a mark of weakness, if we go back to business as usual, we must make this proclamation outrightly that if the humble plea is ignored and or jettison Ndokwa land will raise a standard against the Federal Government and same will be sustained ‘until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

” I believe, like the junior chambers, that faith in God gives meaning and purpose to life, that economic justice can best be won by freeman through fair enterprise, that the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations and the greatest treasure to life is the service to humanity.