By : Owen Nero
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Delta state oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) Olorogun Williams Makinde yesterday made a compassionate appeal to the Niger Delta Avengers to embrace and drop the threat notice of war and resumed hostility of destruction of oil installations in the Niger Delta that will send negative signals to foreign investors and plunge our oil based economy into another round of avoidable wilderness of recession.Makinde who made this appeal in Warri, at the Commission head Office noted that, the federal government is already open to discussion with the group on a negotiation table which is the best approach to the end of the protected struggle for their demands.
The DESOPADEC boss insisted that, dialogue is the best option out of any dispute or challenges as it’s today in the Nigeria Delta. He tasked the youths of the Niger Delta to embrace education and imbibe the virtue of skill acquisition which will make them employable and even become labor employers later when they set up their own businesses.Speaking further, Makinde stressed that, the way forward for every youth is to work with the fear of God and walk in the holy way so that divine providence can manifest in their life’s, adding that, the youth are the most important asset of any nation. While admitting that the Niger Delta region was indeed neglected for a long time, he observed that war approach will be more disastrous and very counterproductive as we all have witnessed not too long ago.
According to Makinde, it is time for the Niger Delta people to use a pragmatic method to resolve their imbroglio. Speaking further Makinde explained that all hands must be on desk so that we do not allow our challenges to overcome us as a people with one collective destiny.He argued that, if we decide to stand akimbo and act lackadaisically, generations unborn will come and remember this time and put us in the black books of history, an error we must correct now Makinde said.Shedding more light on the imperative of peace in the developmental effort of a nation Makinde said: “ now that the federal government has offered to meet the militants at any level be it PANDEF, PNDPC or any other recommended platform all articulated points of demand should be put on the negotiation table starting with the sixteen conventional point demand that we know so that all other salient reasons can articulated into one blue print to be adopted by the Niger Delta people and the federal authority as the way forward” Makinde warned that such a document must be implemented to the letter without any form oflip service attached to the implementation process. While urging all stake holders to take this moments as an opportunity to address the thorny issue of the Niger Delta Makinde said “if there is peace in Niger Delta our friends round the world will come in droves to invest in Nigeria and our economy will boom once again to the very point where we can put our foot on ground and say we are the Giant of Africa”.He affirmed that “for us to know the gravity of the issue at stake, it is good to remind Nigerians of the popular statement made by the great European leader Charles De Montesquieu who said that a nation can lose her liberty in a day but may not be able to get it back in a century. The import of that message to me is that what we can fix today we must notallow till tomorrow, if we are not lucky enough peradventure the charge of Montesquieu may catch up with us…… God forbid” He contended that what is destroyed in a day in a war may take ten years of hard labor to build, hence it is always germane to take the pragmatic approach to issues such as we have today in the Niger Delta region. While stressing that he is convinced that the federal government is committed to the development of the Niger Delta region Makinde said: “
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