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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, July 23, 2004.
Sovereign National
Conference is inevitable - Alamieyeseigha
Akanimo Sampson
Bureau
Chief, Port Harcourt
Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of
Bayelsa State has said that the undying clamour for a Sovereign National Conference as an instrument of resolving
Nigeria’s national question cannot be wished away.
Alamieyeseigha,
who is also called the governor-general of the Ijaw people, says the
peoples of the Niger Delta are convinced that only the conference can
adequately resolve the plethora of problems bedevilling them. According to him, the peoples of
the Niger Delta want the abrogation of all “obnoxious” laws , such as those of Petroleum
and Land Use, which he said had retarded the development of the area.
“Government
can only delay it (sovereign national conference) but cannot avoid
it. The conference is
necessary to enable Nigerians re-negotiate their basis of existence as a
federation and promote fiscal federalism,” he said.
The
governor, who spoke in Yenagoa, the state capital, added: “The peoples of
the Niger Delta are demanding the abrogation of all obnoxious and unjust
laws that are responsible for depriving us of the opportunity of
exercising control over resources found in our region.”
He said the Nigerian state as
currently constituted, had
not extended equity and justice to the Niger Delta in the spirit of true
federalism, pointing out that the region would continue to harp on the
issues of socio-economic and environmental injustice.
“We will
remain undaunted in our struggle for resource control and
self-determination”, he said,
cautioning the youth
of the region, who engage in criminal activities, to ,retrace their
steps. The governor said the
detractors of the Niger Delta had continued to capitalise on some of the
criminal activities of the youth to deny the region their
legitimate right to self-determination.
“We must place premium on
consensus building, logic and hard intellectual disputation to convince
concerned authorities enough to sway decisions in our favour and attract the sympathy of the
international community,” he
said, insisting that the convocation of a sovereign national conference is inevitable and
charged the militant youths of the Niger Delta to work towards fresh
options and new initiatives to maintain the momentum of their struggle
for justice.
“We need to
constantly articulate credible view points that will keep the struggle
alive until the ultimate goal is attained,” he said, pointing out that
the goal of the Niger Delta struggle is to bring about a restructured
Nigerian federation anchored on equity, justice, fiscal federalism and
fair play.
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