Yenagoa—Some concerned youths in the Niger Delta have expressed their frustrations with the federal government “for not carrying along the educated and non-violent youths in the region just as it does to ex-agitators.”
They said the government should also engage educated youths in the region and not only ex-militants in respect of employment and other government programmes meant for the region.
This is following the federal government’s re-awarding of a multi-million dollar pipeline surveillance deal to a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) last week.
President of the Niger Delta Nonviolence Agitators Forum (NDNAF), Comrade Wisdom Ikuli in a statement on Sunday said the Federal Government should stop to undermine the non-violent yet unemployed youths in the region.
Ikuli who commended the government for re-awarding the surveillance contract also lamented that the only language the government understands now is violence.
“While we commend the FG and the NNPC Limited for re-awarding the surveillance contract to some leaders in the Niger Delta, the FG and NNPC Limited should stop undermining peaceful, nonviolent, resourceful, and highly educated but unemployed young men and women who are allowed to roam the streets of our cities, towns, and villages without employments or any form of support or even incentives.
“Has the government ever imagined what will happen if the highly educated but unemployed and neglected millions of peaceful, nonviolent graduates decide to pick up arms against the government and multinationals?
“It is becoming obvious that the only language the government understands is violence.”
Similarly, a lecturer at the Federal University Otuoke, Prince Tokpo Coronation, in a recent Facebook post, lamented the perceived neglect of schooled youths in the region, saying there is no motivation to be peaceful in the Niger Delta.
According to him, the region will continue to grapple with underdevelopment if it continues to exclude its educated youths in the scheme of things.
“It is not easy for youths to stay out of organized violence in the Niger Delta. There is no motivation to be peaceful and reasonable here.
“A region that completely neglects and ignores the educated and peaceful people in the scheme of things cannot make any profound progress.”
The lecturer further opined that ex-agitators have benefitted the most in the majority of the programmes and ministries established for the region including the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and the Ministry Niger Delta Affairs and surveillance contracts.
While maintaining that he is not against those behind the armed struggle in the region, Tokpo appealed for the educated youths in the region to be incorporated into the surveillance job.
“I am not against those who were involved in the armed struggle benefitting. Their activities brought our region to the limelight and national reckoning, but GOC Tompolo should incorporate the peaceful and educated ones too in this surveillance job.
“The current system will only make violence vicious and cyclical in the Niger Delta. Carry the educated ones along too,” he said.
Commenting on Tokpo’s post, a Yenagoa-based banker and entrepreneur, Mr. Padeware Aladei stressed the need to engage unemployed graduates in the Niger Delta.
Aladei opined that young people no longer believe education is the key to success, adding that the neglect of intellectuals has made the country stagnant.
He said if the country must experience economic stability and growth, then leaders must balance the engagement of both educated and uneducated people in the country.
He said, “Our young ones no longer believe education is key rather they believe crime leads to fast growth and high political, societal, and economic patronage.
“The reluctant nature to value those with sound intellectual ideas has kept our nation at a grinding halt.
“Our leaders must learn how to balance both extreme forces to achieve the desired economic stability and growth.”
