A group from the Niger Delta region under the aegis of United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has advised the president, Muhammadu Buhari on how best to tackle the issue of militancy in the region.
The group in its call to the President urged the Buhari to tow in the footsteps of late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua.
The group also blamed the previous administration led by Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for not consolidating on the gains of the past administration.
Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, the Secretary General of the Group, Mr. Tony Uranta, said that the Niger Deltans have “unanimously resolve to resist any further attempts by the federal government to toy with Nigeria’s future by continuing to maliciously deploy the military in the region or attempting to deploy sinister divide and rule tactics against the region’s key actors”.
He continued: “President Buhari is advised to personally and visibly head a holistic solution-seeking strategy that will prove his commitment to a robustly sustainable peace in the region, for there to be true unity, stability and progress in Nigeria”.
The group’s Secretary General also rebuked what he described as “the ongoing farce by too many of President Buhari’s political friends and Ministers, who are wasting time establishing so-called Contact Committees that will not resolve pertinent issues sustainably” adding that “there is no need to re-invent the wheel. All President Buhari has to do is return to the very successful Yar’Adua Template of 2009.
“If Buhari follows Yar’ Adua’s lead, there will be sustainable cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta, and the nation will not be subjected to further losses in National Revenues or the crippling power shortfalls due to unavailability of crude and gas”.