A Niger Delta-based group, South-South Renewed Call 4 Resource Control (SSRC-4RC), yesterday pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to play the statesman’s role and do what is needed to bring resolution to the crises in Rivers State and restore its federal allocation.
While emphasising the role the federal government can play in bringing peace to River State, the group went down memory lane, saying that the January 15, 1966, military coup and the accompanying tragedies would not have happened had the federal government taken a neutral and decisive stand on the crisis in the Western Region “instead of trying to manipulate things in favour of Akintola, who allied with the ruling NPC party.”
“At this point, we call on the president, the National Assembly, the governors, PANDEF, and other like-minded associations in the Niger Delta, and indeed all fair-minded Nigerians, to support this call for the restoration of Rivers State federal allocation and the enactment of the enabling laws for resource control.
In a statement issued by the group Director of Strategy, Dr. Omereji Amadi, and made available to THISDAY, it lamented that an ominous cloud hangs over the nation today “due to the unjust denial of the people of Rivers State what is due to them from the federal purse.
“Rivers State and its people have provided Nigeria with oil wealth for over half a century. Still, the people of state are being denied what is rightfully theirs: their merited federal allocation.
“We do not think it is suitable for the people of Rivers State to suffer such economic deprivation to appease the bloated ego of one individual, Mr. Nyesom Wike.”
Amadi added that: “All well-meaning Nigerians who followed the genesis of this problem had thought that wise counsel would prevail. That narrow-minded political gamesmanship would not be allowed to overshadow the overall interest of a very strategic state and the nation.
“A time like this calls for statesmanship in leadership; the overall interest of the nation must prevail over parochial political or individual interest.
“The question begging for an answer is this: how can a state that is a significant contributor to the wealth of our nation be denied its fair share of that wealth?
“This is an injustice that should not be allowed to stand in the interest of the unity and progress of Nigeria. It is against the law of nature to starve the goose that lays the golden egg.
He stated that through this intervention, “we seek to do the right thing for the people of Rivers State. Let what is due to that state be released to them in order not to hinder the development and welfare of the people of Rivers State.
“We appeal to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to intervene to avert this crisis that may degenerate into nightmares such as the political imbroglio of the 1960s in the Western region/Nigeria.”
The group, however, noted that it took the political will and leadership of President Musa Yar’ Adua, working in concert with other patriots, to bring the destructive chapter of the history region to an end through the Amnesty Programme.
“So we believe that we should learn valuable lessons from our history and not allow this cycle of tragedy to arise again.
This is the time for the right things to be done in Rivers State because it is easy to begin a bushfire, but no one can foretell the boundaries of its destructive conflagration,” he stated.
