The northern group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), says that leaders of the Niger Delta should be held responsible for the festering militancy problem in the region.
In a communiqu� issued at the end of its national executive council meeting in Kaduna at the weekend, the ACF noted that it was regrettable that the people of the Niger Delta had gone through pains and hardship associated with environmental degradation from oil exploration without commensurate efforts at mitigating such suffering in the past.
However, according to the ACF, in spite of the huge resources accruing to the Niger Delta, the leaders “have not been able to translate such resources into developmental projects for enhanced standard of living for the people.”
The northern group pointed out that recent regimes had embarked on spirited efforts to address the problems of the Niger Delta.
“Such efforts range from OMPADEC through the NDDC, to full implementation of 13 per cent derivation. That is why a state in the Niger Delta region would have a budget of N377 billion while another state in the same country would have N53 billion as its budget.
“In fact, as recent as last month, some states in the Niger Delta took home as much as N42 billion while many of the non-oil producing states went home with a paltry N6 billion,” it said.
The communique went on: “The ACF thus appeals to the people of the Niger Delta region to have a rethink of their manner of agitations with a view to improving on their management practices of resources made available to them as well as to embark on constructive engagements with the rest of the country in the national interest of fairness, socio-economic justice and for unity of the country.
“Taking up arms against one’s fatherland in an endless manner can never solve the problems.
More distressing is the fact that the insecurity being visited on the Niger Delta region by violent militants is internecine in the sense that it scares away foreign investors at our collective peril.”
The ACF also said that the meeting deliberated on the “jumbo pay and generous allowances to public office holders.”
The communique explained: “It tends to make politics and public offices better business in the country hence the drift from the private sector to cut throat politics which has become a contest of survival.
“There is this transparent corruption whereby the executive and legislative arms connive and award themselves remunerations and perquisites that make them live in affluent islands surrounded by a sea of misery.
“There should be value for money in our practices of governance. Consider a public officer leaving the office with full salary and allowances and still entitled to gratuity and a befitting house at a location of his choice. This practice offends the sense of justice of many people.”