Elders in Akwa Ibom State, under the aegis of Akwa Ibom Leaders’ Vanguard, have expressed their lack of faith in Nigeria.
Addressing a press conference, yesterday at the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Uyo, the leader of the group, Anietie Okon, said in the face of obvious nepotism, corruption, marginalization and security threat, there was nothing left to be identified with in Nigeria.
“So, as far as I am concerned, the Nigeria I was born into had ceased to exist. We are now groping around either for a rebirth or the end of whatever is Nigeria.
“We have observed the abuses of our commonwealth, dignity and recent threat to the safety of our people and resources. This malfeasance has continued unabated and queries our national essence as a people. The depletion of our national reserves has persisted despite the pretentious anti-corruption stance of the Nigerian state,” the group said.
The group called on the National Assembly and other independent bodies to look into the emergency expenditures, stressing that the resources as generated mainly from hydrocarbon deposits in the Niger Delta region, have been dubiously channelled into the wasteful prospecting of oil in the Chad basin and construction of petrochemical refinery plant in Daura, Katsina State.
“This nepotistic infrastructure completely negates the oath of allegiance sworn by the president as sudden attractions of institutions, including the universities of refineries, etc, find Katsina particularly, Daura an attractive location against the principles of national interest above private considerations.
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“We decry the misuse of our sons to perpetuate confusion in the Niger Delta Development Commission by way of inefficiency under the tarred disguise of forensic investigations, endless board formulations and ad-hoc recklessness,
“Sadly, our kith refuse to see the withered hand of Esau in this self-styled destruction attempts by the cabal and their willing cronies on the overall non-development or prolonged deprivation of the Niger Delta while the North East Development Commission flourishes.”
The Akwa Ibom leaders lamented that while the South slumbers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has engaged in the Federal Government “special projects” to the tune of N43 billion from the N16 billion in December, wondering why the Federal Government project was being executed and paid by the NNPC from the revenue it should be remitting to the treasury.
They consequently demanded executive orderliness in the dispense of appointments, investment, infrastructure, promotion of genuine security to the common good of Nigeria, not just for a part of Nigeria in line with the oath of allegiance and federal character principles as enshrined in the constitution.
THE SUN, NIGERIA
