THE Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND declared, yesterday, that there would be no immediate end to hostage taking in the Niger Delta region unless the Federal Government was prepared to wipe out corrupt practices.
It also vowed to check the abuse of hostage taking in the region.
MEND also counseled the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua not to be deceived by calls in some quarters for the creation of a Niger Delta Ministry which, according to MEND, would just be another bureaucratic waste pipe.
These and some other issues were raised in a statement issued by MEND through an e-mail to media houses yesterday.
The statement, in an interview format: The government under President Yar�Adua and Vice President Yar�Adua has made it clear that they would treat the Niger Delta as high priority. What does your group think about this? Will you be willing to work closely with the government towards resolving the current unrest in the Niger Delta?
�We have repeatedly sounded out that we will work closely with emerging realities and evolving processes. We demanded the release of Dokubo-Asari as a pre-requisite for the beginning of any negotiation with the Nigerian state which have for decades subjected our people to untold measures of neglect, oppression and marginalisation. We did not and have never said that the release of Dokubo-Asari would mean an end to agitations for the liberation and emancipation of our people.
So far, not good enough. However said, we are waiting in grim impatience. The future and whatever it brings will tell if we are satisfied or not.
Recently an Ijaw group presented a list of demands to President Yar�Adua. Do these demands represent what your men require to declare a complete truce with the Nigerian government?
Any Ijaw man with access to Aso Rock has the right to present any demand to Yar�Adua. There is nothing wrong with that. However, they are laid down structures of leadership in Ijaw land and we will never be party to any attempt by anyone to undermine the integrity and capability of any Ijaw organisation.
Anyway, we believe that the leadership of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) are in a better position to comment on this. They are educated enough to articulate the position of the Ijaw ethnic nationality. The INC is headed by a Professor and has a secretary who has a Ph.D.
You may wish to contact them as to the veracity of this claim.
The government and multinational oil corporations agree that the Niger Delta has truly been neglected for very long now. Some schools of thought believe that the creation of a Ministry of Niger Delta will speed up development in the Niger Delta. What is your view on this?
The cursed agitation for the creation of a Ministry of Niger Delta is the handiwork of a �fifth columnist� group within the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory made up of disgruntled politicians, demented elites and position seekers.
Their strategic objection is the deliberately stall development in the Niger Delta by demanding for a bureaucracy prone ministry of the Niger Delta when there are already interventionist agencies such as the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority and more recently the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
If the government of the Nigerian state is sincere about its professed intention to give priority attention to the Niger Delta, then it must duly empower these existing agencies and interventionist institutions to effectively carry out their assigned mandates. This includes ensuring that all the resources required by the Niger Delta Development Commission to fully roll out its Master Plan is made available to it.
The government can then set up a compliance monitoring structure to monitor and ensure that the Commission is meeting up agreed milestones as stated in the Master Plan.