The Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta, MOSIEND, has declared that the Federal Government has not done anything tangible for the people and the Niger Delta region.
The group also faulted the Amnesty Programme for ex-agitators in the region, saying the scheme should not count as an achievement.
Speaking during the 56th Boro Day celebration, MOSIEND National President, Kennedy West, averred that the amnesty programme is not the answer to the problems of the Niger Delta people and region.
According to him, amnesty was just a programme that the agitators from the region agreed upon as a condition to drop their arms.
He said, “They were not coerced to drop their arms, but they did it on the premise that the Federal Government will turn the Niger Delta to a construction site in order to address most of the issues.
“Unfortunately the Federal Government also count the Amnesty Programme as an achievement in the Niger Delta. That is a blatant lie and a way to patronize us, we will not accept it.
“Amnesty is not an achievement, you haven’t done anything for the Niger Delta people. Amnesty was not the only recommendation by the committee, there were about ten.
“President Tinubu should dust the recommendations up, so as to address the burning issues that affects the region headlong.”
He added, “Pipeline surveillance is not a gift to the Niger Delta region, this is not what we want. We want approvals of OML given to the people of the region, reason being that if we have more people from the region operating the OML, there will be a limit to issues of gas flaring, environmental degradation and other challenges faced by the region.
“We have to raise issues and point to the Federal Government that they’ve been unfair to the people of the Niger Delta region. The NDDC will turn 25 years next year, and for the past 24 years the Federal Government hasn’t contributed her own equity contribution into the system, which is an example of cooperate marginalization.
“It is a sad development that most of the things our hero Isaac Adaka Boro asked for are still haunting the nation today. Boro asked for a republic, and asking for a republic isn’t in the ambit of what the Federal Government can do.
“He (Boro) was criticized, denigrated, vilified and killed by the Nigerian Government, but the truth he spoke after 56 years is still haunting Nigeria.
“What were the issues? That there should be fiscal federalism, to allow the various regions and ethnic nationalities that produce the mainstay of the economy have a stake and say in it. Let them control the proceeds that comes out of it.
“The Nigerian government saw him as a threat, failing to understand that the composition that brought about the Nigerian state itself is faulty, but everybody turned a blind eye to it.”
Amnesty Programme not solution to Niger Delta problems – MOSIEND
