What Niger Delta wants is devolution of power — Activist

Niger Delta rights activist, Comrade Nengi James, has called on the federal government to spend more time listening to the salient cries from the geo-political zones and ethnicity in the country towards redressing the plethora issues leading to unrest, even as he noted that what the Niger Delta wants in summary is devolution of power.
James, State Chairman of the Civil Liberty Organization (CLO), said the South West is calling for a restructured Nigeria, just as other geo-political zones are also calling that the country be restructured, and while the agitations continue unabated, the federal government must pause and proffer solutions.

James, erstwhile leader of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), averred that flora shaw who gave the name “Nigeria” has passed on, and different manner of agitations have continued to reverberate in the different zones, not primarily for the nation to disintegrate but for dialogue which the federal government must convene.

He pointed that the federal government should always be hasty to deploy military, as such innocent person were often victims of such action, rather it should listen to advice of elder statesmen (Past Presidents/Stakeholders) to find an amicable solution to several issues on the front burner in the various zones.

James alluded that the centre is too strong, and that power should be divulge to the states to harness whatever resources on their land and plough back percentage to the centre, which according to is what the Niger Delta people crave for.

He noted that acceding to devolution of power would redress agitation in oil rich Niger Delta, which is the economic nerve centre of the country.

The Niger Delta Activist reasoned that interaction with the South West people also revealed that they prefer an improved regional system because it is more beneficial to them compared to the over bloated presidential system that has left component states struggling amidst plenty.

James pointed that the feedback from other zones are not different, adding that in the case of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), the federal government should dialogue with stakeholders, to charter a way forward, since the militarization has completely address the agitations of the people.
He therefore called on the presidency desist from pretending that there is no imbalance in the body polity, stressing that from the geo-political zones there are so much injustice, deprivation and neglect that has threw up the myriad of agitators and cries for dialogue in the country.

To this end, James, however, called on the federal government to redress the issues on the front burner to keep Nigeria as an indivisible entity, as failure to do that would further heightened chaos in the country because patience would become inelastic in the zones.