Scrapping Of Niger Delta Ministry – Matters Arising

Opinion

Scrapping Of Niger Delta Ministry – Matters Arising

Considering the unique, strategic position of the Niger Delta to the Nigerian state development, especially her revenue contributions as the foremost, leading region that has sustained the economic growth of Nigeria through the revenue generated from crude oil, President Tinubu’s scrapping of the Ministry of Niger Delta is a threat to the relative peace in the region. The Ministry of Niger Delta was deliberately set up to focus on providing a holistic attention to youth restiveness, improve oil exploration activities to meet the government’s objective to ramp up Nigeria’s crude oil production to about 2 million barrels per day.

Petro-Dollars earned from Niger Delta crude oil was, and is still the major contributor to Nigeria’s economy and infrastructural development. Niger Delta crude oil is responsible for the respect that Nigeria earns from the international community.

Recently there has been a replication of ‘Development Commissions’ with the creation of the South West Development Commission, SWDC, and the North East Development Commission, NEDC.

By the way, apart from ‘political expediency’, what are the economic/financial relevance and contributions of the SWDC and NEDC to the economy of the Nigerian state? These agencies will be funded from earnings generated from Niger Delta crude oil! I stand to be corrected. If youth restiveness should rear it’s ugly head in the region, government’s objective to ramp up crude oil production will be thwarted.

The environment of the Niger Delta region has been in a permanent state of degradation, no thanks to oil exploration activities. Fishing, which is the main occupation of indigenous people of the Niger Delta is no longer feasible, no thanks to the pollution of their environment. In the midst of these, past governments have deliberately played politics with the development of the Niger Delta – a region that produces over 80% of Nigeria’s wealth. President Tinubu should review his decision on the scrapping of the Ministry of Niger Delta.

President Tinubu has been on the saddle for about 16 months, rather than scraping the Ministry of Niger Delta, he should by now have set up a process to probe and reposition the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, especially to enable her deliver on her core mandate to develop the Niger Delta region.

After all is said and done, the Niger Delta, Irrespective of the political propaganda that says crude oil has lost its relevance in the future of energy, let me remind President Tinubu that the Niger Delta shall continue to be economically relevant, despite deliberately attempts to enslave her people – the Niger Delta holds the key to huge, untapped LPG resource that will continue to play a pivotal role in the inflow of FOREX into Nigeria. Whether Nigerians like it or not, the hard fact is that the Niger Delta shall continue to be relevant to the sustenance of Nigeria’s economy. The Ministry of Niger Delta has been responsible for the relative peace that has increased crude oil production today to 1.4 million barrels per day.

It’s not heresy, the Niger Delta cannot be removed from the financial dynamics that hold Nigeria’s economic relevance, stability and development, not at this crucial time that President Tinubu is assiduously working to ramp up Nigeria’s crude oil production capacity from 1.2 million barrels per day to 2 millions barrel per day, especially when we consider the fact over 60% of future crude oil had been mortgaged by former President Buhari and Tinubu for IMF and World Bank loans. As long as the region is undeveloped, youth restiveness shall persist. This fact makes the Ministry of Niger Delta relevant.

For the sake of peace and development of the Niger Delta and to achieve government’s proposed target of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, President Tinubu should revisit the scrapping of the Ministry of Niger Delta.

Finally, with the huge capacity of the Niger Delta to continue to be the most critical region that contributes to the economic viability of the Nigerian state, the Ministry of Niger Delta should be removed from the proposed ‘Regional Development’ body recently created by President Tinubu. If anything, the Ministry of Niger Delta, should be independent of the ‘Regional Development’ body as a ‘first’ amongst the NDDC, SWDC and NEDC. The Ministry of Niger Delta has been responsible for the peace in that region, It should stand alone to continue to lead the peace process. This is the way to go.

By Onorakpene Eviosekwofa