Niger Delta human rights activist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has faulted President Bola Tinubu for scrapping the Ministry of Niger Delta.
The environmentalist was a guest on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.
“The Ministry of Niger Delta was created by the late (President Umaru) Yar’Adua. There was a reason for the creation. So, just removing it because the president was advised. I want to believe that he was advised because if he did it by himself that would be terribly wrong,” she said.
In October, Tinubu scrapped the Ministry of Niger Delta and replaced it with the Ministry of Regional Development to oversee all development commissions like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), North-West Development Commission, South-West Development Commission, and the North-East Development Commission.
“But that’s not going to be the solution because who is going to fund the commissions? Is it the regions because it is called the Regional Development Ministry? Is it the states in the regions?
“What are the regions because we don’t work with regions right now; we are working with geopolitical zones.
“So, I was lost when I heard regions. Are we going back to regionalism? If we are, we have to discuss it, the president can’t decide on his own to restructure Nigeria. If we are restructuring Nigeria, the president alone can’t restructure Nigeria, he has to take my opinion and your opinion into consideration,” Briggs stated.