Hardship: NDDC rolls out scheme to engage 10,000 Niger Delta youths

… As Akpabio urges Niger Deltans to shun proposed protest

From Chris Eze, Port Harcourt

The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC has set up a Youth Internship Scheme that would absorb over 10,000 youths of the region with a monthly salary of N50, 000.

The scheme was launched on Tuesday in Port Harcourt at sensitization conference organized by the commission for ethnic nationalities, youths and women in the region.

Senate President Chief Godswill Akpabio who performed the launch urged stakeholders in the region not to participate in the planned nationwide protest, stressing that President Tinubu means well for the people of the region.

The Senate President noted that nobody called for protests as the people of Niger Delta were reeling under the agony of a degraded environment and the attendant hazards, adding that even the promoters of the planned protest also did not capture the core interest of the Niger Delta in their demands.

Akpabio described as worrisome and shocking the inclusion of change of government in the list of the demands outlined by the protest promoters and lauded youths of the South East and South South for dissociating themselves from the proposed protest.

“So I was happy seeing the Niger Delta youths, the South East youths saying since you have gone ahead to include change of government in your demands, our hands are not there

“The 9 states of the Niger Delta have resolved collectively that they will not be part of this so called anarchy the people call protest

“So here we are, we will go about our normal businesses, but we should not take for granted that some who live among us will not try to use the situation to foment trouble to loot people’s shops, the Senate president pushed.

According to the senate president, President Tinubu is a listening president who feels the pain of Nigerians, urging the people to desist from copying what happened in Kenya to destabilize the nation.

He said, “Of course everybody knows that subsidizing our petroleum products would have killed us. Nigeria was living on life support before this administration came on board”.

He went ahead and listed some remarkable feats the Tinubu administration has done specifically for the Niger Deltans that should endear the president to the people.

Akpabio said the last time someone from the South south became senate president was 45 years ago during the time of the Late Senator Joseph Wayas. But this time during the time of Tinubu, he has been privileged to be the senate president. He said that the Coastal Road running from Lagos to Calabar is another well thought out program that strategically places the Niger Delta people at advantage.

“Is it time for us to protest? We are now on the table where things are being shared”, he stressed.

He lauded the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku and his team for the new vision he has brought in the management of the commission which has seen the board record many heart- warming achievements unlike what previously obtained in other management team.

In his key note address, the Managing Director of NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku pointed out that the hardship being experienced nationwide is not a creation of the administration of President Tinubu.

He however said that the Tinubu administration has come up with policies and programs aimed at addressing the economic challenges.

He described the president as a father who listens to his people, saying that the president means well for Nigeria and Niger Delta in particular.

The MD disclosed that the president has approved a whopping N1 trillion for the commission apart from the regular budget for the completion of projects abandoned by previous boards in various locations in the Niger Delta.

He urged the people to reciprocate the noble gesture of the president by supporting his administration and shun the planned protest being organized by some faceless elements.

“If Niger Delta is peaceful, Nigeria will be peaceful, if Niger Delta is prosperous, Nigeria will be prosperous. That is the power you and I have and because we have that power, let us try and use it in a positive way. That power is what gives us our own stake and credit in a Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is the time to use that power to negotiate for development in the Niger Delta” the MD pleaded.

There were goodwill messages from the IYC president, Sir Jonathan Lokpobiri, Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, Environmental Activist, Mrs. Ankio Briggs, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, among many others who all preached against the planned nationwide protest, urging Niger Delta people to shun the protest.