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N’Delta youths warn Obasanjo’s third-term
campaigners
By Akanimo Sampson
Bureau
Chief, Port Harcourt
Subtle
campaigns for President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for another term has drawn the
ire of youths of the Niger Delta, with some of them warning that the alleged
third-term bid of the President would not foster the conditions necessary for a
stable oil flow in the country.
The
caveat of the youths is coming on the heels of claims by the Senate Committee
Chairman on Industry, Kola Ogunwale (Osun Central) that President Obasanjo
cannot hand over in 2007 due to the revolt of armed youths in the
country’s oil region.
Ogunwale
in a recent interview with Daily Independent
argued that, “it is just natural that the Obasanjo government has to stay
to quell such an uprising and return the nation to normalcy before there could
be proper conduct of elections for a fresh government.”
In
an interview at the weekend, Mr Kingsley Kpea, an Ogoni, and a principal leader
of Rivers Coalition, a pro-democracy group, said the emerging re-election bid
of Obasanjo was fuelling fresh anger in the Niger Delta area.
According
to him, “if President Obasanjo is harbouring any re-election ambition in
2007, it will spell doom for Nigeria. The Niger Delta youths are likely to
resist such ambition.”
For
Mr. Uchegbu Chinedu, South South Chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation
(CLO), “the scheming is being programmed to make Obasanjo stay in power
beyond 2007.”
The
CLO activist claimed that the primary interest of the U.S. in Nigeria is a
stable oil supply with lower oil prices, adding, “the failure to develop
an alternative source of energy that is also commercially viable has caused oil
to remain the lifeblood of the global economy.
“This,
however, implies that for oil-dependent countries like the U.S., cheap, stable
oil supply is essential for their economies. But while oil-dependent countries
prefer a stable and cheap price of oil, oil producing countries prefer a stable
yet more expensive price of oil,” Chinedu averred.
Already,
the Ijaw National Congress (INC), the umbrella body of the Ijaw people, has
warned that any fresh trouble in the region could easily disrupt oil supplies.
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