Arewa insists Nigeria can
survive without Niger Delta oil
– Senator Waku criticized militants in
the Niger Delta region for their violent
act
– He says the government should be
tough on them
– He says Nigeria can survive without
oil
Senator Joseph Kennedy N Waku who is a chieftain
of the Arewa Consultative Forum has challenged the
Niger Delta to drink their oil and they would hold
on to their agriculture.
In an interview with Vanguard, Waku criticised
militants in the Niger Delta region for blowing
pipelines and trying to hold the government ransom.
When asked about what he thought about trying to
dialogue with the militants, Waku said:
“What kind of dialogue? Let them bring to
table what they want. Let them do what
they are doing, they will also suffer it. Are
they also not suffering when they ruin the
economy? Are they not facing the same
problem like you and I? They are talking
of marginalization today.
If you create Biafra today, is Biafra solidly
Igbo’s? It’s not.
When you go there, you
would find a southern minority who will
tell you that they don’t want to be part of
it, even among the Igbo. Some Igbo will
tell you that they don’t want it. If there is
definitive kind of discrimination against
certain segments of the country, that
needs to be addressed because injustice
creates dissatisfaction. If there have been
injustices against one particular group in
this country, let’s address it and not by
taking the law into their hands.
That is criminality. We are also affected
but we want to take it in a matured
approach. You cannot go and begin to
destroy state apparatus in order to
achieve your agitation, it is against the
law. I am not in a position to talk about
which contract was revoked because I am
not involved in that.
If those contracts were illegally awarded
without going through the due process
and the current administration wants to
follow due process, what is bad about
that? Go and do your investigation on that
contract to see whether the old law that
qualifies one for such contracts were
made. What do you award contracts to
militants for? In the first place, the name
‘militant’ is criminality. It is only this
country that somebody will come back
and say I am a militant and then ‘you
award him contract.’ If they claim to be
agitators as they are saying, then let them
come out with their demands and not by
holding the state to ransom.”
“What do they need? Let them come out
and tell government that ‘this has been
our farmland, it has been devastated, we
have no land to farm anymore’ and then
bring a proposal to the federal
government. This is how it should be
done than issuing threats. If I were the
president, I would have ended that thing
by now.
READ ALSO: FG mulls possible foreign
conspiracy in Niger Delta militancy
“Yes, by closing the whole thing down.
Before oil came, didn’t this country exist?
So, what are you talking about? We have
been blindfolded and Nigeria became so
lazy, a nation of cheap money. Before the
oil, we had cocoa, we had palm oil,
groundnut and pyramid, and those were
the things that actually helped to develop
the oil.
“At a point, we in Benue challenged them that
okay,’ let them go and drink their oil, we would
eat our yams and then see who will survive.
You may read the full interview here .
survive without Niger Delta oil
– Senator Waku criticized militants in
the Niger Delta region for their violent
act
– He says the government should be
tough on them
– He says Nigeria can survive without
oil
Senator Joseph Kennedy N Waku who is a chieftain
of the Arewa Consultative Forum has challenged the
Niger Delta to drink their oil and they would hold
on to their agriculture.
In an interview with Vanguard, Waku criticised
militants in the Niger Delta region for blowing
pipelines and trying to hold the government ransom.
When asked about what he thought about trying to
dialogue with the militants, Waku said:
“What kind of dialogue? Let them bring to
table what they want. Let them do what
they are doing, they will also suffer it. Are
they also not suffering when they ruin the
economy? Are they not facing the same
problem like you and I? They are talking
of marginalization today.
If you create Biafra today, is Biafra solidly
Igbo’s? It’s not.
When you go there, you
would find a southern minority who will
tell you that they don’t want to be part of
it, even among the Igbo. Some Igbo will
tell you that they don’t want it. If there is
definitive kind of discrimination against
certain segments of the country, that
needs to be addressed because injustice
creates dissatisfaction. If there have been
injustices against one particular group in
this country, let’s address it and not by
taking the law into their hands.
That is criminality. We are also affected
but we want to take it in a matured
approach. You cannot go and begin to
destroy state apparatus in order to
achieve your agitation, it is against the
law. I am not in a position to talk about
which contract was revoked because I am
not involved in that.
If those contracts were illegally awarded
without going through the due process
and the current administration wants to
follow due process, what is bad about
that? Go and do your investigation on that
contract to see whether the old law that
qualifies one for such contracts were
made. What do you award contracts to
militants for? In the first place, the name
‘militant’ is criminality. It is only this
country that somebody will come back
and say I am a militant and then ‘you
award him contract.’ If they claim to be
agitators as they are saying, then let them
come out with their demands and not by
holding the state to ransom.”
“What do they need? Let them come out
and tell government that ‘this has been
our farmland, it has been devastated, we
have no land to farm anymore’ and then
bring a proposal to the federal
government. This is how it should be
done than issuing threats. If I were the
president, I would have ended that thing
by now.
READ ALSO: FG mulls possible foreign
conspiracy in Niger Delta militancy
“Yes, by closing the whole thing down.
Before oil came, didn’t this country exist?
So, what are you talking about? We have
been blindfolded and Nigeria became so
lazy, a nation of cheap money. Before the
oil, we had cocoa, we had palm oil,
groundnut and pyramid, and those were
the things that actually helped to develop
the oil.
“At a point, we in Benue challenged them that
okay,’ let them go and drink their oil, we would
eat our yams and then see who will survive.
You may read the full interview here .
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