Dr Chris Ekiyor, a former President, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, on Wednesday said the Federal Government needed political will to resolve the crisis in the Niger Delta.
Ekiyor told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Port Harcourt that informed Niger Delta indigenes would continue to talk till the region was developed.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday said his administration was making steady progress towards resolving the crises in the Niger Delta .
Buhari had made the remark during a bilateral meeting with his United States counterpart, Barack Obama on the side-lines of the 71st edition of the UN General Assembly, holding in New York.
However, Ekiyor stressed that the bottom line was that government needed to have the political will to implement what the people had asked it to do.
“And what are those things? We are talking about equity in the distribution and the use of resources being generated from the Niger Delta.
“We are not saying that the rest of Nigeria should not benefit.
“We are saying that in delivering this economic prosperity, the people who bear the brunt must be in the front burner but not at the detriment of others,’’ he said.
According to Ekiyor, the government does not need commissions to develop the Niger Delta like they are developing Abuja.
“Government should just develop the Niger Delta the same way it is developing Abuja. We should not be treated as second class citizens and people that you give handouts to.
“We are saying that government should remediate the environment so that we can live as a people who are not subjected to hardship or depressed,’’ he said.
Ekiyor urged the government to nationalise the issues bedevilling the Niger Delta and use political will to resolve it. (NAN)
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