The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has opposed the resolution of the National Conference Sub-Committee on Devolution of Power and Resource Control to uphold the current status quo of 13 per cent derivation for oil producing states.
Spokesman of the council, Mr. Eric Omare, in a statement, yesterday, said, “This decision is retrogressive, anti-federalism and totally unacceptable to the Niger Delta people.”
IYC, therefore, called on “southern delegates, particularly Niger-Delta delegates to the National Confab to insist on resource control during the debate in plenary and not to deviate from the position of the region on resource control under any circumstance.”
“The IYC has observed with dismay the unauthorized and reckless contributions of some Niger Delta delegates who have taken positions, which amounts to deviation and betrayal of the Niger Delta position. Any Niger Delta delegate who deviates from our position on resource control would be declared as a persona non gratia and would not be allowed to return to the region,” the group said.
It noted, “The Committee’s decision to maintain the status quo and refusing to address the crucial issue of resource control betrays the expectation of Nigerians and Niger- Deltans in particular that the National Conference would right the wrongs of the past, deepen our federal system of government and put Nigeria on the path to development.”
“This is nothing, but a triumph of the retrogressive and provocative agenda of reactionary forces in Northern Nigeria,” he added.
According to Omare, “The IYC wish to warn that the decision of the Niger- Delta people to give peace a chance to allow the federal government address the problems of the Niger Delta should not be taken as weakness.”
“The Niger-Delta people are still willing, ready and capable of bringing the Nigeria economy to its knees. The opposition of reactionary northern delegates to resource control and demand for scrapping of the NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Amnesty programme are provocative to the Niger Delta people and we may be forced to take drastic actions,” he stated.
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