Strategy outlined out to end the militancy in the Niger Delta and push for economic development in the region will be ready in about four weeks’ time, the Federal Government has said.
It stated that thorough consultations were currently taking place, adding that stakeholders in the region as well as governors of states in the Niger Delta would be consulted before the blueprint would be released.
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Paul Boroh, stated this during a meeting between the Inter-Agency Committee on the Niger Delta and the Pan Niger Delta Forum at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja on Thursday.
Boroh said, “We are here discussing critical issues concerning the Niger Delta region and all we want to achieve is to come up with a working plan, like a masterpiece developmental plan for the region. This plan will be inclusive of peace, security, stability and development.
“The plan is ongoing as we have started. It is a process that is ongoing and within the next four weeks or thereabout, the blueprint will be out for public consumption.”
In his address, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Niger Delta, Mr. Charles Achodo, confirmed that in a couple of weeks, a clearly defined road map for the end of militancy in the Niger Delta and the beginning of concerted development of the region would be released.
He said the development of the blueprint and road map was a result of the feedback given by the states to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during his recent tour of the Niger Delta region.
“We were given the mandate to come up with an implementation work plan that would reflect responses to issues raised in the region. For the first time in the history of the region, you have the agencies coming together to work out one common platform and that platform avoids wastage,” Kachikwu said.
He explained that the focus of the committee was on developmental issues and the challenges of the Niger Delta region, such as issues of environmental degradation, infrastructure deficit, unemployment and militancy.
Kachikwu added, “We are working it out together with the PANDEF. That way, it is regionally and collectively owned. We are also working it out in response to some of the feedback given to the Vice President during his tour of the states.
“Once all these are put together, we are going to take it back to the states and engage with them to basically revalidate some of the assumptions made; and then, we will finally have a document that will drive the development challenges in the region.”