Simon Utebor, Yenagoa
The umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council
Worldwide, has said the N65bn budget for the Niger Delta Presidential
Amnesty Programme will not abate the crisis in the region.
The IYC was reacting to the increase in the proposed budget for the Niger Delta’s amnesty programme from N20bn to N65bn.
Spokesman for the council, Mr. Eric Omare, said on Thursday that the increase shouldn’t call for any celebration from the people of the region.
He argued that the increase would only enable the Federal
Government to meet its targeted daily output of oil from the region,
describing the strategy as exploitative.
Omare further argued that attention should rather be shifted
to how much was budgeted and released to the Niger Delta Development
Commission, the Niger Delta Ministry and the Federal Ministry of Works
to carry out developmental projects in the oil-rich coastal areas.
He noted that it would be erroneous for the Federal
Government to think that by increasing the amnesty budget, which he
described as ‘security money’, it was doing the Niger Delta a favour.
President Muhammadu Buhari had during the presentation of
the proposed 2017 budget noted that the government would focus on a
projected oil output of 2.2 million barrels per day at an assumed price
of $42.5 per barrel.
This year alone, there have been a series of attacks on oil
and gas infrastructure by aggrieved militants in the region,
drastically reducing output and plunging the country into recession.
But the IYC spokesman noted that unless the development of
the region was taken seriously, rather than the current ‘window
dressing’ adopted by the government at the centre, the crisis in the
region might never abate.
Omare said, “To put in in a proper perspective, it should be
noted that this increase is not for development of the Niger Delta, but
for security and probably a bit of human capacity development.
“The attention should be on how much is budgeted and
released to the NDDC, the Niger Delta Ministry, the Ministry of Works
concerning the Niger Delta. Those are the areas we should be interested
in,” he stated.
Omare maintained that even billions of naira that were
budgeted in the past for the development of the region were never
released, insisting that the increase in the amnesty budget should be
viewed with cautious optimism.
However, he commended the President for the increment in the
amnesty budget, stressing that it was a “right step in the right
direction.”
“We need to commend him, however. But this move has to be
genuine. It is one thing to propose a budget, another for it to be
passed and yet another thing for it to be released,” Omare said.
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