The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has demanded that the Federal Government should allocate licences for oil blocks in the Gombe, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Kogi basins to people from the Niger Delta region.
The President of the council, Mr. Peter Igbifa, in a statement to mark the 2023 Workers’ Day, said allocating oil blocks in the North to Niger Delta people would build bridges of unity and economic integration in the country.
Igbifa said since most oil block licences in the Niger Delta are owned by northerners, it will only be equitable, fair and just to allow Niger Delta people own and operate oil blocks in the North.
The IYC president said Niger Delta people should be given oil blocks and unfettered access to operate businesses in oil and gas in Gombe, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Kogi states, the same way northerners are freely accessing oil business in the Niger Delta.
He said, “Since the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in the Niger Delta, northerners have owned oil block licences and operated oil and gas businesses in the Niger Delta enriching themselves from the proceeds of these blocks and businesses.
“It gladdens our hearts that oil has been discovered in some states in the North. Explorations for more discoveries are also going on in the North.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to also allocate the oil blocks in the North to Niger Delta people. This will ensure fair, just and equitable distributions of the country’s resources. It will also help to promote unity and economic integration in the country.”
Igbifa also condemned failure of the Federal Government to complete the East-West Road, saying sufficient attention was not being paid to the most critical road in the region despite protests from different stakeholders in the Niger Delta.
He said the road would soon suffer another devastation following the looming flood, which he said would again make the road impassable and cause losses in businesses.
Igbifa said, “We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on the East-West Road and direct his minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola, to aggressively fix the road without excuses the same way they handle issues concerning the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.
“We have noticed that since the East-West Road project file was transferred from the Ministry of the Niger Delta to that of Works, there has been inexplicable delay in executing the project.
“While the road continues to be abandoned, similar projects in other parts of the country like the costly maintenance works on the Third Mainland Bridge are being pursued with speed. We are calling on President Buhari to fix the East-West Road before bowing out of office”.
He commended President Buhari for the 40 per cent increase in federal workers’ salaries but called on him, governors and other employers of labour to ensure improved welfare for workers.
He appreciated the contributions of workers in all fields especially those from the Ijaw ethnic extraction to the progress and development of the country and asked them not to bow to challenges inherent in their work environment.
Meanwhile, in a National Network Newspaper publication, House of Representatives House Committee on Host Communities chairman, Hon Dumnamene Robinson Dekor has repeated his call for urgent attention on the reconstruction of the East/West Road.
Troubled by the confirmed highly deplorable state of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road, the member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Dumnamene Robinson Dekor has again called for a declaration of national emergency on the road.
He said it is important to reiterate the call, as it is becoming shameful for Nigerians to have such road of immense economic importance abandoned and turned into a death trap.
The federal lawmaker who spoke to journalists when he visited the area on Wednesday, said he was particularly alarmed at the state of the Akpajo Bridge, which he feared was on the brink of collapse.
“1 don’t know how many persons have been privileged to take a look at the bridge, just by the Eleme Petrochemicals. We pray that that bridge does not collapse when people are passing through it.
“If the federal government continues to fail in their responsibility, it’s my prayer that whoever heads the federal government should be on that bridge when it will collapse, so that government will understand the enormity of the suffering of the people who live and regularly ply that route”, the angry lawmaker declared.
The House Committee chairman on Host Communities wondered if the federal government was waiting for people to get killed on the bridge before they could see the need for action.
Noting that the road serves beyond Rivers State, he urged that quick action be taken.
‘Again, 1 call on the federal government to take this road seriously. And if they think the road is just the path way to Ogoniland it’s not true.
“If that’s the reason they don’t want to work, rehabilitate that road, they should realise that road leads to Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and even up to Benue State”, he reminded.
The national lawmaker recalled that as then Works commissioner in Rivers State, the Wike administration attempted to take over the bridge to build a new one but the effort was frustrated by the Niger Development Commission, NDDC and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs who immediately mobilized materials to the site but have not done anything on till today.
“They started dropping materials there, suggesting it is a federal government project and asked the Rivers State government to back out.
“But several years down the line, that road is still like that. So, I call on the federal government to be responsible enough to rebuild that road, which is supposed to be one of the largest and biggest roads in Nigeria”, he said.
He noted that the road remains the path way for over a thousand companies that bring taxes and other revenues to the federal government.
