President Bola Tinubu has been asked to preserve major community stakeholders in the oil-producing Niger Delta in order to prevent massive loss of jobs and guarantee steady oil production.
Traditional rulers and community leaders in several Niger Delta communities made the plea during the week while meeting with journalists and other stakeholders in Warri, Delta State.
The community leaders said Pipeline infrastructure (Ocean Marine Security) had brought peace, stable oil production and environmental justice to host communities in the Niger Delta.
“Over 20,000 young people in the Niger Delta may lose their means of legitimate livelihood if the Federal Government reverses the oil pipeline protection involving thousands of young people as local stakeholders, traditional rulers and youths in some oil producing communities,” the leader of Egbodoko Community Daniel Omawunmi told journalists in Warri as stakeholders took turns to speak.
The traditional rulers and community leaders in the Niger Delta who spoke to journalists during the week across the Niger Delta said they were ready to work with President Bola Tinubu to realise his mission of transforming the economy backed with a stable atmosphere of oil production in the Niger Delta.
The communities wanted the Nigerian government to take bold steps that would ensure oil theft, pipeline vandalisation and pollution come to an end in the Niger Delta region, through active participation and support of local communities and professionals.
The weeklong stakeholders’ meetings held in Warri, Ugheli and two other Niger Delta communities.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday at his Ughelli Palace, Wilson Ojakovo told journalists that “We have never seen such a strategic intervention that has brought peace to the Niger Delta which is necessary to guaranteed oil production and ensure sustainable development in our recent political and economic history.”
He said he was speaking on behalf of several communities in the region. According to him, Pipeline Infrastructure (Ocean Marine Solutions) has brought hope to the people of the Niger Delta. He said one of the most significant intervention of the group was its ability to drastically reduce oil pollution in the entire Niger Delta by working with the security agencies to discover and stop illegal oil refineries and other illicit activities that destroy the Niger-Delta ecosystem.
A group of Niger Delta Professionals who attended a stakeholders meeting with journalists on Tuesday said the Niger Delta is critical to a stable economy which President needs in order to ensure uninterrupted oil production and the completion of the refineries.
Dr Ebiri Edema who spoke on their behalf told journalists that the Niger Delta stakeholders are impressed by the blue print of the current government on economic transformation. He said it will be easier to achieve stated goals if oil production is stable. ‘
Edema said, “We have the responsibility to guide the President on the right steps to take. We are not politicians. We are professionals. President Tinubu knows that oil is the mainstay of Nigerian economy. He also knows that he needs a stable environment to be able to produce oil. That is why he needs to understand the situation in the Niger Delta at the moment.”
Speaking further he argued that “No fewer than 20,000 youths are direct and secondary beneficiaries of the activities of Pipeline Infrastructure alone. If these youths lose their jobs, it will throw the Niger-Delta into turmoil. The Pipeline Infrastructure is the best thing that has happened to the Federal Government and the people of the Niger Delta region. Since they came into the system, pipeline vandalisation has almost vanished, oil production has seen additional 100,000 barrels while working with security operatives; they have been able to stop many instances of plots to siphon oil illegally