New Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Mohammed Barkindo on Tuesday expressed hope over Federal Government’s negotiation with militants in the Niger Delta region, saying the negotiation would proffer a permanent solution to the crises in the region.
Barkindo said this while addressing State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, urged the Buhari-led government to adopt the strategy of ‘carrots and sticks’ in handling the Niger Delta militants.
Barkindo said “For me, based on my own experience here, the option of carrot and stick, as they call it, I think is the way forward.
“Government, I understand, is negotiating, discussing and we are beginning to see positive results. So, I don’t think it will be proper to preempt these discussions that are being handled by Dr. Kachukwu.
“But I remain confident that through these negotiations, stable and permanent solutions will be found to this problem because the Niger Delta region is a very important part of our country and whatever we can do to address the challenges of development I think is the way forward.
“I have been told that production is beginning to rise again. So, for us in OPEC, this is the first thing we look at. How much is a member country producing? When we saw that production was falling in Nigeria as a result of recent challenges, the international community, the market also took note of that. But now I think things are beginning to come back to nomalcy and I have seen some of your reports that are also very positive.”
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