The British Government yesterday said the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta region was a reflection of lack of confidence by the people of the region in their leaders and the failure of the governments to address their needs.
British High Commissioner, Richard Grozney, who stated this yesterday during a visit to the Minister of State, Air Transportation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in his Abuja office, said that local and state governments in the four core Niger Delta states of Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom have not been able to convince the people that government meant well for them in spite of derivation fund paid to them.
Gozney stressed that so much money was being derived from the Niger Delta areas and that the people should feel the impact and therefore charged local and state governments in the core Niger Delta region to �convince the people that they will gain from democracy�. When this confidence is restored he continued, �I think the bad boys will be squeezed out� he added.
On the forthcoming general election in the country, the envoy said that Britain was watching with keen interest the preparations for the April polls in Nigeria, but again warned that to get it right, rule of law must be obeyed.
Maintaining that his home government has been observing pre-election preparation and was in constant talk with the INEC, Grozney advised politicians to have faith in the judiciary by taking grievances to law courts and to obey the verdict of courts.
�Whatever the courts say, for us, is final. Let the courts decide�. He further stressed that the British government likes the election to succeed and be better than the 1999 and 2003 elections so that in May 2007 when a new government will be sworn in, we will be celebrating eight years of reforms as well as welcoming the new government�.
Gozney also revealed that very soon the British government would add as requirement for visas into the country, fingerprints and eye-prints of applicants.
This, he said, was to enhance security, but insisted that it was not targeted at Nigerians alone. The eye print is obtained using an eye-scanning machine.
He revealed also that there was a new system designed for students to identify bona-fide students going to the United Kingdom, “which is going to be incorporated in the student visa.” He suggested to the minister that aviation matters between the two countries be discussed bilaterally. Aviation, he said, was an enormous bilateral factor between Nigeria and Britain since two airlines operate into Nigeria from the UK while one operates into UK from Nigeria. He therefore pleaded that any reforms affecting this was better discussed �instead of knowing about it on front pages of newspapers�.
Fani-Kayode agreed, but insisted that Nigeria should always be given a fair deal, inview of the historical relationship between the two countries.
Feb202007