By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South, Sam Oyadongha & Chioma Onuegbu

WARRI—LEADERS and stakeholders of the Niger Delta, yesterday, were divided on the new Federal Government’s roadmap for the transformation of the region.

The two-year roadmap, Strategic Implementation Work Plan, SIWP, (2017-2019), still at draft stage, awaiting approval by the Presidency, contains 457 projects to be executed in the nine states of the region at the cost of over N2 trillion to be provided chiefly by the Federal Government and International Oil Companies, IOCs.

While a former military governor of Akwa Ibom State, Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, led those who accused government of insincerity, former National Chairman of the Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON, Pere of Siembiri Kingdom, Delta State, His Majesty Charles Ayemi-Botu; former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Don Idada Ikponmwen (retd.) and others, said it was a welcome development.

Between PANDEF, REF

Meanwhile, a coalition of militant groups, the Reformed Egbesu Fraternity, REF, comprising Egbesu Mightier Fraternity, EMF; Egbesu Red Water Lions, ERL, and the Egbesu Marine Commandoes, EMC, yesterday, rejected, outright, the SIWP, arguing that it was done without due consultation with the people.

Some of the stakeholders supported the call for dialogue by Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, before government concludes on a roadmap, since the group, led by South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has the mandate of the people of the region.

However, REF’s consultative assembly, which met weekend, withdrew its mandate to the group and also passed a vote of no confidence in the Clark-led PANDEF.

Nkanga, Ikponmwen

Otuekong Nkanga, who spoke to Vanguard in Akwa Ibom State, said the only way the Federal Government can demonstrate its sincerity towards the development of the Niger Delta region was by implementing the 16-point agenda presented to it by PANDEF last year.

Nkanga said there was nothing so special about the N2 trillion the Federal Government and IOCs earmarked for various projects from 2017-2019 in the nine states of the region, when compared to the devastation of the region caused by oil exploration.

For former Provost Marshal, Brigadier General Ikponmwen, who spoke to Vanguard on phone from Edo State, “the roadmap is heart warming and a welcome development; it is a good place to start.”

Aligning with Ikponmwen’s view, His Majesty Charles Ayemi-Botu, said: “I think it is a very comprehensive work plan and all encompassing.

“I am excited by the package and commend the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. But what I do not know is if government has the will to execute the plan.”

Regional groups back SIWP

Convener of the Niger Delta People’s Congress, Chief Mike Loyibo, told Vanguard: “The two-year SIWP to develop the Niger Delta is a step in the right direction. The Federal Government has consistently shown a genuine desire to develop the region.

“The plan to create 100,000 jobs in each state of the Niger Delta region for our people will go a long way to meeting the yearnings of the common man in the region.

“More than any other government, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has shown that partnership with the people of the Niger Delta pays.”

Convener of South-South Re-awakening Group, Dr. Joseph Ambakederemor, who spoke to Vanguard in Bayelsa State, said: “For us, it is a welcome development as  Rome was not built in a day.”

Also speaking, Bayelsa-based human rights/environmental activist Iniuro Wills, said: “All stakeholders should quickly collaborate to update and adopt the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan to have a common, publicly-accessible, easily-monitored and, therefore, far more bankable roadmap for transforming the Niger Delta.”

It came without consultation—Egbesu

However, the Reformed Egbesu Fraternity, REF, in a statement by the General Officer Commanding, Tony Alagbakereowei, said: “We reject the Federal Government, IOC’s N2 trillion for 457 projects in the Niger Delta, as the proposal was without consultation with the people of the Niger Delta region.

“These are mere budget lines meant to whet the appetite of the elite of the Niger Delta region and the key Federal Government operatives. Currently, the NDDC is weighed down by hundreds of abandoned projects amounting to over a trillion naira.

“Therefore, for the Federal Government to contemplate the execution of 457 projects under the NDDC and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs is a cosmetic embellishment of the grievous issues of the Niger Delta.”

Ref on Clark

On the Clark-led PANDEF, REF said: “At age 90, Papa Clark should step aside for younger people if at all there is the likelihood of further engagement with the Federal Government.

“But we equally dissociate ourselves from the antics of the Federal Government in the peace process in the region, and call for outright destruction of the oil economy in our territories and communities to teach the Federal Government a hard lesson.”