Leader of Niger Delta People�s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, on Friday, threatened to go back to the creeks if the federal government failed to address the agitation of the region.
Asari, who spoke at the Niger Delta Investment and Economic Summit, organised by Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), while delivering a paper entitled, �Curbing
Restiveness in the Niger Delta through Empowerment�, said the region had been subjected to social and economic problems in spite of its endowed resources.
He pointed out that NDPVF had decided to give up the armed struggle, not as a weakness, but to allow the federal government and the multinational oil and gas companies to address the burning issues of unemployment, low capacity building and lack of empowerment, among others, in the region at a reasonable time.
The NDPVF Leader said: “We must insist that the oil multinationals must as a policy move all their administrative headquarters, fabrication plans and others to the Niger Delta. Also, the people of the oil bearing communities must be given preference in the employment, in the award of contract, scholarships and training programmes.
“It is provocative and wicked for oil companies to consider for employment persons outside their areas of operations when there are qualified individuals from the oil bearing communities walking the streets without jobs. This policy must stop and those who are responsible for these policies should be shown the way out.
“The government in the Niger Delta area must pursue mass education policy that will engage all the people in both formal and informal education such as training in craft and skills. Education is the bedrock of any society that has a vision for industrialisation and technological advancement.
“The oil is a wasting resources and in the next 20 to 30 years, there will be no oil hence we must pursue programmes and policies that equip the people with sustainable skills for self reliance when the inevitable day will come when oil will be no more. I propose that education should be free at all levels in all the Niger Delta states,” he added.