Niger Delta Crisis: Okowa, Tambuwal canvass DIALOGUE
DELTA State Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and his Sokoto State counterpart, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal have said dialogue rather than violent agitations would bring about speedy development of the country.
The two governors made the submission (27/08/16) in Asaba during the second day of the Delta State Economic and Investment Summit.
According to the governors during the summit which was organised as part of activities to celebrate the silver jubilee of the state's creation, the security challenges in the Niger Delta region in particular could not have degenerated to the situation where the country was losing huge revenue as a result of destruction of pipelines if the people involved had applied dialogue, noting that the region has great potentials for growth when the resources of the region is harnessed which can only be done in a peaceful environment.
"I bring you felicitations from the Nigeria Governors Forum on your state's silver jubilee celebration, Delta State is known for peace, and a lot can be achieved when dialogue is applied; I want to call on the youths of the Niger Delta Region to embrace dialogue and peace in their agitations, let us have dialogue on the various issues affecting the region; we need peace and tranquillity in the country so that we can harness all our resources for development; I urge the youths of the Niger Delta to engage the Federal Government through dialogue so that solutions can be found," Hon. Tambuwal said.
Governor Okowa on his part, said "we seek peaceful environment from our people, so that a lot of development can take place; we need to cooperate with ourselves so that we can right the wrongs of the past."
"A lot of the investment community are ready to partner with us to develop the state, but, we need to ensure that we sustain the peace and security in our communities so that investors can come in; it is not wrong to agitate but we can do that through dialogue, we will get better result when we agitate through dialogue," the governor emphasised.
He assured the people of the state especially the participants of the summit that government would take all necessary measures to implement its resolutions asserting, "the presentation at the summit gives us hope for the future, this summit would not end up as a mere talk show, I have instructed my executive council that all the suggestions and resolutions at this summit should be brought up at a special Executive Council Meeting within the next two weeks so that we can begin to implement them"
While commending all the participants especially the former administrators and governors of the state for charting the way forward for the state, the governor called for the cooperation of all to provide an enabling environment for investment to thrive.