Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum, has dismissed insinuations that the Muhammadu Buhari-led government was working against the people of the Niger Delta.
He made the clarification in an interview at the end of the 2016 Convocation Ceremony held on Saturday, October 8, 2016 at the Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Effurun, Delta State.
Kachikwu noted that the president was very supportive of the project of ensuring that government reached an agreement with the people of the region through dialogue by ensuring that the old model which failed was restructured.
“The dialogue with the militants has not collapsed. I have laid that process and the president is very supportive of that process. But what the president does not want to do is to put in place same model that failed after four months and militants are back to the creeks”, he said.
“We are looking at a long term model and I have presented to Mr President a road-map and it encompasses short, long term solutions, engagement and inclusiveness of the communities. We absolutely believe that the Niger Delta is key to the country, they have contributed so much in very many ways but the society has failed them
“And I use the word, society, not necessarily government because if you look at what has been provided over the years, it’s a lot and some of them have not got it right for certain reasons like corruption at different levels. We need to begin to look on how these benefits will get to them, so, let everybody be calm, destruction of oil assets doesn’t lead you anywhere.
“I am from here and every money that the state loses because of militancy is lack of development in the state. I went to the creeks and I talked with some of the militants and we dialogued and some of the results you are seeing today are the results of those dialogues. “But I do agree that we must have a robust, permanent, aggressive, inclusive dialogue on the table.”
Kachikwu concluded by saying that the PTI and its management team were the right answer to bridging the gap in producing the local manpower in the oil and gas industry.
