Protest: Heed Tinubu’s Appeal, Niger Delta Group Tells Youths

An advocate group, Niger Delta Media Activists Group And Excellent Leadership Foundation, has urged youth bodies and civil society groups involved in the ongoing nationwide protest against hunger and bad governance to honour President Bola Tinubu’s call for dialogue on resolving issues that led to the protest action.

The group’s position as contained in a statement released by its national coordinator Chief Izzi Yakiah, said the poor policies and programmes of state governors’ and their lack of deliberate steps to improve governance in their regions is a main reason that culminated in the anger of Nigerians.

He said the president was not responsible for most of the socio-economic challenges confronting the nation, despite the Renewed Hope Agenda support and interventions to different states of the federation.

The group leadership insisted that despite the rise in states monthly allocation under President Tinubu in the last 13 months, most governors have failed to take advantage of the inflow of money at their disposal to improve the standard of living of citizens and reduce poverty in their respective states.

The release wondered why “a state like Bayelsa State with an enormous gas deposit could be rated as the second poorest state in Nigeria emphasising that Bayelsa solely dependant on the Federal Government for sustenance, shows lack of vision of the prosperity administration to revitalise about ten non-functional industries particularly the Bayelsa State Plastic Industry and Bayelsa Palm that stimulate the local economy during the era of Chief Timipre Sylva as Governor of the homogenous Ijaw State from 2007 to 2011.”

He noted that while “states like Abia, Kogi and Imo and others with lesser state resources are embarking on aggressive economic reforms, the Bayelsa State Government priority has been to enrich the economic status of executive and legislative arm officials living the majority of citizens in perpetual poverty while infrastructural decay in rural public schools and health centres in many communities across the state get no attention by the state Government that has relatively collected above twenty billion naira monthly allocation since the beginning of this year.”

The statement also expressed concern on the deteriorating governance in the state citing the misappropriation of eight billion naira agriculture loan fund approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020 as confirmed by the governor in a recent media briefing.