The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, on Thursday, July 7, 2016 faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for saying that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, insisting that the future of the country deserved to be negotiated.
The group also accused the Buhari administration of threatening the unity of the country through its style of governance.
In a statement by its spokesman, Eric Omare, the Ijaw Youth Council said Buhari’s approach to governance was old fashioned and had not yielded the desired result for the country.
“The circumstances of the present day Nigeria demand a renegotiation of the future unity and existence of Nigeria,” Omare said.
The Ijaw Youth Council also said all ethnic nationalities in the country were in support of calls for talks about the peace and unity of the country.
“This demand is not peculiar to the Niger Delta but cuts across all parts of the country. For Nigeria to make progress, President Buhari should dump his old fashioned approach to the unity of Nigeria and face the reality of the present day situation,” it said.
“Nigerians want a renegotiated Nigeria that reflects a true federal state and allow people to grow at their own pace.
“Nigeria as presently constituted is suffocating and the federating ethnic nationalities can no longer bear the suffocating effect of the defective structure which hampers the development of the country. It is in the interest of all Nigerians to renegotiate the future unity of Nigeria.”
The Urhobo Monitoring and Development Group, UMDG, has similarly expressed concerns with Buhari’s sectional leadership style manifested in the president’s recent appointment.
The national president of UMDG, Prince Kingsley Oberuruaria, told Vanguard that the president’s appointments were tainted to favour northerners and Muslims saying such actions unnecessarily create ethnic and regional tension.
The group specifically took a swipe at the recent constitution of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for blatantly refusing to give oil producing communities of the Niger Delta region sense of belonging in the management of resources from the area.
“We are still shocked with President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments so far. The truth is that such actions are not palatable. Our region where the oil and other resources that feed the nation are coming is being neglected both in appointment and development, and this government is not helping matters,” Oberuruaria said.
“The Urhobo has annihilated from Nigerian government and this is not fair for us as a people. Buhari should look inward and correct these injustice against our people in the Niger Delta if he actually means for this country.”
