BY FESTUS AHON
UGHELLI—NATIONAL President, Niger Delta Youth Movement, NDYM, Mr. Godspower Odenema, has urged the Federal Government to revisit the allocation of the 12,000 pipeline surveillance job slots it created for youths of the region to avert impending crisis.

Odenema said in a statement yesterday that the job slots were already generating tension which, if not well managed, could become explosive.

He said:   “The relevant agencies handling the implementation got it all wrong ab initio. The consequences of this false start could trigger off a series of crisis which are capable of jeopardizing the fragile peace in the volatile region.

“It is our hope that the incipient anomalies in the implementation of the 12,000 job slots would be redressed as this intervention would propose.

“One of the grievous errors made by the supervisory agencies (Ministry of Petroleum Resources and NNPC) was the non-involvement of the Niger Delta Youth Movement, NDYM, the only recognized and authoritative umbrella body of Niger Delta youths at home and in Diaspora.”

“The supervisory agencies ought to have consulted the NDYM since it has the mandate to represent the interest and aspiration of Niger Delta youths.

“Furthermore, the NDYM being an indigenous movement with every oil and non-oil producing community represented in it is in a better position to do a fair, justifiable and equitable allocation of the job slots.

“The error committed by the supervisory agencies is already causing ripples and bad blood among various ethnic groups and youths organizations. This is so because the job slots have been hijacked by persons who think and wrongly so that it is only through violence that they can accumulate and appropriate common wealth.

“This should not be so. The grim consequence of this view is that splinter groups are likely to engage in violence to get their share of the oil cake.

“The Niger Delta struggle is a collective engagement. Yes, it is true that some people bore arms, but we must emphasize the point other groups engaged the titanic struggle via civil disobedience, intellectual engagement, legal battle and negotiations. In all, we all paid one price or the other.

“This is the reason why no individual or individuals should be decorated as the symbol of the Niger Delta struggle. We are all involved.
“As earlier indicated, the allocation of the job slots is already generating tension which if not well managed could become explosive.

An example is the case of Delta State where only two individuals sat and allocated slots according to their whims and caprices without being sensitive to the feeling and reaction of other groups.

“The two fellows gave 2,000 each to their respective ethnicities (Ijaw and Itsekiri), and then gave a meagre 200 slots to the Urhobos, an insignificant 180 to the Ndokwa and Isoko respectively.

“This insensitive act is already causing friction all over the region. It must be addressed and redressed.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the NYDM has been in the forefront of the civilized, peaceful agitation for the creation of a pipeline surveillance outfit to be managed by Niger Deltans. It is therefore unfortunate that it was not consulted in the realization of the scheme. Its failure is looming.

“In very clear terms, and also to avert the impending crisis, the NDYM requests that the modus operandi of the allocation should be revisited immediately.

“The NDYM which is the most important stakeholder in youth matters in the Niger Delta should be consulted for the way forward.
“It should be done now before it is too late. The 12,000 job slots are meant to be a panacea to youth restiveness and they must not be allowed to become new problems.

“We want genuine and lasting peace, and it is only through justice and fair play can there be lasting peace.”