Nkanga blames Nigeria’s poor development on injustice

Isaac Job, Uyo

A former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom state, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga has blamed poor development in the country despite its rich human and natural resources on injustice.

Speaking in an interview in Uyo, Nkanga decried a situation where people from Niger Delta states who have contributed so much to the economy of the country continue to suffer neglect and marginalisation.

He wondered why the money paid by oil companies as penalty for gas flaring should be shared across all the states of the federation whereas only oil producing areas actually suffer dangerous environmental and health hazards arising from gas flaring.

“The problem is when we sit down as Nigerians, do we wonder why we are not making progress. God has endowed us with human and natural resources but if we continue to build the country on injustice, progress and development will be elusive.

“The oil companies have been paying penalty to the federal government for flaring gas but federal government will take that money and share it the way they are sharing the oil money.

Meanwhile, everyday it is reported that people are going blind, and dying in the oil producing areas.

“As the person that is out there in Ibeno or Warri is going blind because of gas flaring, is the person in Zamfara or Kaduna going blind too because of gas flaring? So these are the issues that annoy the people of this region.

“It is gas flare and other environmental issues as a result of oil exploration that are causing blindness and deaths in the region, yet they are playing with it,” he stated.

Nkanga, who is the National Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF), expressed disappointment that President Buhari’s government failed the people of the region by not implementing even one of the 16-point which the forum presented to it 4years ago during the negotiations to stop agitations in the Niger Delta region.

He said the stakeholders played their part by ensuring that destruction and bombing of oil installations was stopped in the overall interest of the country, believing that Federal government would keep to its promise of looking into the issues affecting the region captured in the 16points.

According to him, it was initially agreed that there will be continuous dialogue on the 16-point agenda and reminded the federal government of the negotiations with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo for oil companies to relocate their headquarters to Niger Delta states where they operates, but such arrangement never yielded expected result.