Niger Delta group tells Jonathan to Shape up or ship out

A group, Niger Delta Peace Foundation, on Friday in Abuja called on President Goodluck Jonathan to “sit up and be alive to his responsibilities” in the protection of lives and property, saying “he has deviated.”

The organisation suggested that if the Presidency could no longer tackle the security challenges in the country, the National Assembly should commence the processes for the enactment of legislation for the creation of state police in Nigeria.

It said: “We are much matured to have state police. We support state governments agitating for state police. If the government is not making serious efforts to tackle the security challenge in the country, the lawmakers should do something in that respect.”

The National President of NDPF, Chief Daniel Ebahor, stated this at a press briefing where he also called on the President to overhaul the Federal Executive Council for them to face their work and reduce “their present non-challant attitude to the welfare of Nigerians.”

Today, the system of government in the country, Ebahor said, has created enormous problems “too difficult for the administration to solve as a result of bad governance emanating from lack of provision of infrastructure and unemployment, which has given rise to the insurgence of Boko Haram, insecurity and militancy.”

He added: “The Executive should sit up. This is a wake-up call on Jonathan to perform because he has deviated. The security challenges in the country have nothing to do with budget implementation. There is no work, no job and no money, and you are saying you have security challenges.

“That is why kidnapping, militancy and terrorism are rife. The recent happenings in our country must give serious concern and mental torture to any right-thinking Nigerian who takes into account and in retrospect the aims and objectives of our forefathers in enthroning democracy as the best system of government in Nigeria. The administration of the present Federal Government needs a very critical analysis and review.”

Ebahor commended the House of Representatives for its impeachment threat on the President, saying it would ensure probity and accountability in Nigeria.

He, however, urged the Senate “to borrow a leaf from the House of Representatives in order to make the Executive to be alive to the plight of Nigerians.”

While calling on the Federal Government to “overhaul the Federal Executive Council with a view to making them work and be alive to their responsibilities,” NDPF suggested that the government should immediately increase the oil derivation allocation to oil producing states from 13 per cent to 50 per cent.

This, it said, would “help alleviate the economic backwardness and untold hardship the people of the Niger Delta have suffered from different administrations at the federal level.”

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