News
Trouble Looms As Niger Delta Governors Come Under Fire
Governors in the Niger Delta region have come under fire over the decay of infrastructure and underdevelopment in their States.
Chairman of Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, NYP, Moses Siloko Siasia blamed the Governors for not fully tapping into what he called the economic potentials of the region.
He noted that the Governors were creating an army of youths who may soon rise up against the zone.
Speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the just concluded Niger Delta CEO’s Conference in Port Harcourt, Siasia stressed that the Niger Delta was economically viable, calling on leaders in the region to harness the energy and ideas of young people.
He enumerated some of the key areas of economic viability in the region to include human resource, agriculture, oil and gas, blue sea economy, and ecotourism among others.
His words: “There is no society globally that has advanced without its human beings. The greatest resource or asset of every society is in its people.
“I have met a lot of experts and professionals from the Niger Delta region who are doing extremely well in different fields of endeavour.
“We must ensure that we identify and engage them. Countries that have advanced such as China, Singapore, Malaysia and others, looked at their bests brains and how they can actually make them contribute their expertise to engineer economic growth.
“As key stakeholders, we must urgently harness the mass energy and idealism of our young people into productive ventures.
“Agriculture also has great potentials in the Niger Delta region. We have great soil for cassava cultivation, and rice production. We can have three seasons of rice production in a year without any form of irrigation.
“But in the Northern Nigeria today that have taken the glory for rice production, it is difficult to do three seasons of farming without irrigation. So we must tap into this.
“On plantain which is one of our crops, we must ensure we do a lot of plantain plantation and also encourage local governments to go into the production of plantain. We also have ogbono, pepper, vegetables and many others. These are crops that can grow in our region and we can use them for the collective good of our people.”
Siasia expressed regret that the region has not done well in the area of oil and gas exploration and production, saying the failure of the Niger Deltans to build the capacity of their people has made other geopolitical zones to take over service and ownership of oil assets.
He disclosed that only Bayelsa State houses 75 percent of gas deposit in the entire country but expressed dissatisfaction that it has not translated into economic benefit to the people of the State.
“Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and many other big countries do not have the level of gas reserve Bayelsa has today. So we must be able to tap into the oil and gas industry and create jobs for our people who have been impoverished.
“There are a lot of our people who have been trained either as welders, civil engineers, underwater divers but have not been engaged. We must prepare our people to take over the oil and gas sector,” Siasia added.
While expressing dissatisfaction that doing business in the Niger Delta was quite challenging, Siasia called on governors in the region to support young business owners.
He further appealed to state governors in the region to provide incentives for young business owners, suchs tax holidays, creating an enabling environment and grants.
We must deliberately provide knowledge, expertise for young people who are doing business within the framework of our comparative advantage. Also, low digit interest funds for young business owners, is one of those deliberate policies that are not there” Siasia revealed.
He called on all stakeholders in the Niger Delta to do more in the area of building capacity of their youths through skills to position the region for more gains in key sectors of the economy.
He, however, expressed gratitude to the organiser of the event and the CEO FASTTRACK Consulting, Ernest Sorgwe for putting the event together, saying such opportunity has resonated a lot of hope for the Region.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Resources Authority says it has commenced a clampdown on illegal LPG retail outlets in Akwa Ibom State.
The state Coordinator, Ikechukwu Eseka, disclosed this on Thursday while receiving the state commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Bakshar Hussaini, in his office on a courtesy visit.
He said, “We have started enforcement of LPG retailers embarking on illegal decanting of LPG, filling stations, LPG refilling plants and other illegal downstream operations in the state.
“We are currently working on the illegal proliferation of decanting of LPG in the state, Eseka stated, adding that gas is very volatile, and some of them are using gas that is not meant for the purpose.”
He said he has directed that gas plant owners should not load gas on people who don’t have licenses NMDPRA in the state, warning that “decanting of gas from cylinder to cylinder is an illegal activity which is punishable by law.”
He also called on marketers to register and renew their licenses before operating LPG in the state.
“We used the opportunity to talk on the aspects of the downstream which has to do with our enforcement, sealing of filling stations and those who are using diesel for industrial purposes that are yet to register with NMDPRA.
“We have also commenced engagement with individuals and organisations using storage tanks that are over 500 litres, to come and register with the Authority in the state,” he added.
Eseka thanked the Commandant for coming to re-strategise and collaborate with the Authority in the state.
Earlier, the State Commandant of NSCDC, Hussaini, explained that the purpose of coming was to collaborate with NMDPRA on how to checkmate indiscriminate decanting of LPG in the state.
“I know with the present situation in the country, a lot of them are going to cry and you have to use human face to handle their cases so that we don’t injure the government and the public themselves,” he said.
He lamented that some people used their houses to sell cooking gas which can cause environmental hazards to the public.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced plans to phase out the Permanent Voter Cards, PVC.
INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs, held at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja on Thursday.
This was part of the identified 142 recommendations released by the Commission which deals with the general state of preparedness, voter management, voter education and public communication, political parties and candidate management.
Other areas of recommendation include electoral operations and logistics management, election officials and personnel, partnership and collaboration, monitoring and supervision, election technology, voting and result management, election security, electoral offences and the electoral legal framework.
The Chairman said there are eight recommendations among the 142 which require legislative action by the National Assembly.
“The Commission also believes that with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, the use of the Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVC, as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation on Election Day should be reviewed.
He, however, said that those who already have the Permanent Voter Cards can still use them to vote.
He added, “But going forward, computer-generated slips issued to the voter or even downloaded from the Commission’s website will suffice for voter accreditation. ”
Yakubu said this new development will save costs and further eliminate the issues around the collection of Permanent Voter Cards.
He also said the practice of buying up the Permanent Voter Cards from voters to disenfranchise them, would be reduced.
President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to present the 2025 proposed budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, December 17, 2024.
The announcement was made by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during a plenary session, revealing that the President has sent a communication to that effect.
“The president has made his intention known to the National Assembly to present the 2025m budget to the joint session of the National Assembly on the 17th of December, 2024,” he said.
The proposed budget, totalling N47.9 trillion, was earlier announced by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Atiku Bagudu.
NMDPRA begins clampdown on illegal LPG retail outlets in Akwa Ibom
Elections in Nigeria: There’ll be no more need for voter cards – INEC
BREAKING: Tinubu to present 2025 budget proposal to National Assembly Tuesday
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