Why Buhari Cannot Ignore the S’South – Uduaghan

Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has said that Nigeria’s President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, cannot afford to ignore the South South region.

Uduaghan, who spoke in Warri, on Wednesday, noted that the region remained important in the country “because the oil revenue from the area is sustaining the country”.

He noted the fact that most of the states in the South South were controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should not cause the President-elect to ignore the region and should, therefore, be included when it was time for the new administration to make federal appointments.

‘’Be that as it may, we congratulate the President-elect, whom we hope that having won, should look at the whole country as his constituency and not just a section of the country or his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

‘’It’s obvious that the South South states are controlled by the PDP, so they cannot be ignored in the scheme of things in Nigeria.

‘’He (Buhari) should make sure that the South South gets what it deserves in terms of appointments, projects and programmes, because, as at today, this is where the money in Nigeria comes from and we insist that we must have that recognition’’, the governor said.

He expressed his gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for the projects he located in Delta State, stressing that the President had been ‘’good to Delta’’.

‘’ We still believe in Jonathan and we have no regrets voting for him. He did, exceedingly, well for us. Unfortunately, our votes alone could not get him elected.

‘’We thank Jonathan, who, magnanimously, put a call through to Buhari, which went a long way to douse tension and the anticipated violence. Everyone has accepted that the country must move forward and those who disagree should go to court’’, Uduaghan added.

On the elections in Delta and the victory of the PDP candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Uduaghan advised the opposition to congratulate the Governor-elect, in the spirit of reconciliation.

‘’Okowa has promised to carry everyone along as he extended a hand of fellowship to them. Those who contested the seat with him should take their loss in good faith. We all saw that the defeat was very glaring’’, the governor noted.