Governors: As They Meet Tomorrow

By Daniel Reyenieju Oritsegbubemi

our Excellency,

In order to rebuild the nation’s weakened economy, the proceeds from oil were used to prosecute critical government projects across the country post-civil war. More than half a century after, Nigeria remains a federation of a kind, and every time a people demand restructuring, the government asks insensitivity what that – restructuring – means. Being the leader of the South-south governors forum, I unreservedly congratulate you therefore for leading in a manner you expect others to go also.

The crude oil that has continued to sustain everything Nigeria presently is in all ramifications is thankfully in abound in the South-south region. Before you stand in open wonder at the opulence the people so blessed, then you are pushed to almost causing their ill-luck. The air is carcinogenic with gases, water is beyond what their lean resources could be made portable and affordable, roads constantly beg for attention, the fishes have taken to flight and government projects are hardly completed.

Curiously yet unapologetically, the proceeds of oil are causing an aggressive agro-revolution in the north while the south remains abysmally poor. Most of the foods consumed are therefore gotten from our amalgamated half. The goose that lays the golden egg is not even allowed to incubate her produce as the refineries that should employ some of our sons and daughters are constantly out of production.

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Excited at the news of artisanal mining activities in Zamfara State, the Federal government quickly birthed a presidential initiative for he artisanal miners so that they get value for the gold that comes out of the mines and to also develop healthier ways of mining while reducing its impact on the well being of the miners and surrounding communities. The proceeds of the Zamfara gold barely gets into the coffers of Nigeria rather, the government of Zamfara is selling gold to the central bank of Nigeria, headed by a son of the deprived Niger-delta yet there is no move by the same bank to buy crude oil or gas from the states in the region.