Ayemi-Botu tells Tinubu: Nigeria has expired, urgently convene Sovereign National Conference
Says nothing binds North, South together any longer
•Speaks on oil theft, PAP
How do you see the state of the nation?
Well, it is only divine intervention that can salvage Nigeria from the myriad of challenges before her. I want to state that doing the right thing on the part of the nation’s leadership can also help remedy the situation.
President Bola Ahmed had just appointed ministers into his cabinet and, as usual, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has not been assigned to any minister. What’s your opinion on why successive Presidents from 1999, except Goodluck Jonathan, apportioning that office to themselves?
This should be a bone of contention to every patriotic Nigerian. It is a fact that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari and now Bola Ahmed Tinubu have failed to appoint a petroleum minister. Suffice to say that the sole objective of most of the presidential aspirants is to grab Nigeria’s oil wealth on assumption of office in Aso Rock Villa.
The Niger Delta people have been calling on the Federal Government to let them protect their resources as oil theft is affecting the nation. What is your take on it?
No sane Niger Deltan will be calling on the Federal Government to let them protect their resources. Now, oil theft increases sequel to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA.
What do you think is the way to increased oil production in the country?
In the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, there is provision for Host Communities Development And Trust Fund and the beneficiaries (HOSCOM) are obliged to protect the oil facilities within their various kingdoms in order to benefit from the three percent (3 percent) of the annual budgets of multi-national oil companies set aside for the development of host communities. Now, the pipelines criss-crossing the Niger Delta region and the other geopolitical zones have been under the protection of security agencies which are mandated to secure the safe delivery of petroleum products for domestic consumption and export.
…but, security agents have been accused of oil theft in the Niger Delta. What’s your view on this allegation?
Sadly, those who have been paid with the hard-earned taxpayer’s money are the same people conniving with oil barons at home and abroad, using the most sophisticated methodology/technology in carting away our crude oil under the close watch of security operatives who guard them under the pretext that they are officially allowed to sail out of Nigeria’s territorial waters to international waters and beyond.
The recent disclosures by an ex-militant/frontline Niger Delta agitator could not be disputed and the Tantita Security Services is on collision course with security operatives due to the excellent and diligent pipeline surveillance activities in exposing the nefarious activities of those collaborators.
I wish to state here in clear terms that Tantita Security Services is a square peg in a square hole in checkmating those who have been assigned to protect our economic interest. President Tinubu is hereby requested to, without any equivocation, review the contract awarded Tantita Security Services. Tantita is indeed exposing the ills of the oil cartel in the Niger Delta.
There is a network of very highly-placed top military brass, retired and serving, top political leaders of civil dispensation, business tycoons, multinational oil companies and their cohorts having cartels and syndicates that cannot and will not be dislodged. It is embedded in the system and it has become a cankerworm in the body of Nigeria, and that is why all the country’s wealth is being siphoned through this illegal process.
So, what’s your overview of the scenario in the region?
During a one-day seminar on oil theft/illegal bunkering organised by the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), at NICON NOGA Conference Hall, on February 21st, 2023, I reiterated that lack of patriotic, God-fearing, transparent, righteous leadership who have their selfish and nepotistic desire above the interest of Nigeria have brought the nation to its present state of comatose.
What is your position on prevailing issues in the running of PAP?
I want to use this medium to commend the Interim Administrator of the programme, Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), over his efforts in transforming the amnesty programme. He has indeed reorganized the programme for smooth, efficient and effective management with his expertise initiatives and vision.
The programme, earlier designed to train and empower Niger youths, was messed up by his predecessors and swayed from its original concept. Now, Ndiomu is doing a good job by bringing it on course with plausible initiatives for beneficiaries.
In a nutshell, Ndiomu is God-sent to sanitize the amnesty programme and I urge President Tinubu to confirm his appointment, it is enough of the interim appointments. Mr President should confirm Ndiomu as a substantive Special Adviser to the President on PAP just as he has done in NDDC to give him the leeway to exercise his wealth of experience.
Moreover, I urge the Federal Government to also see to the need for an upward review of the monthly stipend of beneficiaries of the programme in consideration of the economic trend from 2009 to date.
Your final words
Nigeria is a country where anything goes, where corruption is condoned and rewarded, where those found guilty are not punished through the legal processes. It is only divine intervention that can salvage Nigeria. Meanwhile, I call on President Tinubu to convoke a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to decide the destiny of Nigerians as the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates by Sir Lord Frederick Lugard expired since 2014.
It’s an indisputable fact that nothing is binding the North and the South together, the amalgamation treaty is of no effect now. Let us redefine Nigeria’s destiny.
#Aina Stephen
Comments
Post a Comment