Prominent Niger Delta stakeholders at the weekend called for industrial and infrastructural revolutions in the Southsouth.
The revolutions, according to them, can be achieved by governors and council chairmen in the zone, especially with the revenue windfalls to them.
The stakeholders are the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Isoko Development Union (IDU), Future Nigeria Movement (FNM) and Itsekiri Leaders of Thought (ILoT).
They called on the governors to feel the body language of President Bola Tinubu and key into his efforts towards alleviating the plight of the people at the grassroots.
The stakeholders contended that with the states and councils receiving more cash from the federation account, they have no excuses not to deliver on good governance.
According to them infrastructural and industrial revolutions would create jobs, reduce poverty and improve the security of the states and councils.
INC, the apex Ijaw socio-cultural organisation, said the governors and council chiefs should engage in productive activities.
It specifically advocated oil and gas-associated industries in the region.
The President of INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba: “We have the raw materials in our region that can sustain the industry.
“If you talk about the ceramic industry, the raw materials are here, anything associated with palm products, we have them in abundance and we have so many other raw materials.
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”There is no excuse; I think the only excuse anybody cannot just is that there is no money. You know we have a ‘feeding bottle’ economy whereby at the end of the day, governors stroll down to Abuja and collect money and spend it and after 30 days, they go back to Abuja.
”People should take advantage of the available raw materials at their disposal and transform them into finished products. The entire economy is oil-dependent and when we diversify into industrialisation, we will begin to create jobs and reduce poverty as well as crimes. These things are interwoven.
“By now, we should have an oil and gas associated industry in the Niger Delta. That is why we talk about modular refineries. Young men, because of the poverty level and other forms of marginalisation, are getting themselves into illegal bunkering which is also polluting the environment.
”Can’t we also transform these men and help them in establishing modular refineries? This is because they have got the skills needed to run modular refineries. This is a far better initiative than condemning them. Unless credible alternatives are created such as industrialization, it will be difficult to end oil theft in the region.”
Okaba, however, said the Niger Delta would continue to clamour for resource control.
PANDEF also urged both states and local government areas to set aside an agreed percentage of the windfall for human capital development, grants and soft loans to small and medium-scale businesses (SMEs).
PANDEF’s Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, said he believes that with money in circulation, the economy of the region would thrive.
Robinson said: “Beyond the palliative that is being envisaged by the federal government, we expect the states and local government councils to set aside a certain amount from their increased revenue for manpower development and direct support as grants, soft loans to small and medium-sized businesses.”
The group commended President Tinubu for the steps he had taken so far to tackle the nation’s problems. .
President-General of IDU, Prof. Chris Akpotu, said that with the huge revenue allocations to Delta State, Isoko people are looking up to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and the council chiefs for an “infrastructural revolution.”
He said: “Ours are positive expectations about doing the needful when we have such good things coming our way. For us, the speed of development that we have always envisaged should be activated considering the fact that resources have been buffered as against when we normally use the word ‘scarce resources. ‘
“We see a governor that will be willing to do more, perhaps even beyond what he has promised. Prior to the election and eventual swearing-in, resources in terms of finance were a little bit down with the removal of the fuel subsidy.
”Definitely, it is a buffer from what will be coming in from Federal allocation, which we are already aware of, so we expect that for him, being a governor that is keen on developing the state it would help to up his game”.
He emphasised the need to support the people in the area of Agriculture.
Akpotu said: “For the Isoko people, we look forward to some kind of infrastructural revolution – the road network and then, helping to support our Agriculture.”
“Agriculture at our own level is more of a subsistence thing. We want a situation whereby agriculture can be moved to a commercial level so that the economy of the area will begin to boom.”
FNM) advised that the financial windfall should be deployed in people-oriented programmes and projects in the Niger Delta.
Its Leader, Livingstone Wechie, said: ”To this effect, governments at all levels in our region should consider the need to invest these excess funds in Agriculture and transportation infrastructure to ease logistics and welfare of the people. This should serve as the immediate palliative in place of the insoluble stipends that were ab initio proposed for a category of Nigerians.
“The Southsouth governments should take these excess funds as the palliative that should help cushion the effect of the subsidy removal by implementing innovative alternatives to ease the impact on the economy and the masses.
“They must not see this increase as an oil boom for ostentatious spending with crass insensitivity. Governments at all levels in the Niger Delta must be seen as institutions that seek to genuinely resolve the economic situation that tends to strangulate the people.
ILoT said in order to maximise the impact of increased funding, the two tiers of government in the Niger Delta must have medium and long-term goals.
According to the group, the short-term goal should focus on the provision of mass transit vehicles for the people.
ILoT’s Publicity Secretary, A.S Mene, also appealed to the tiers of government to subsidise the cost of conversion of vehicles from premium motor spirit (PMS) to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
Mene said government at all levels must in the long term channel the increased revenue to provision of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, roads, schools, bridges and human capital development.