Former two-time governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Bassey Attah, has dismissed reports that leaders of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) during the meeting with President Buhari reportedly asked for oil blocs. Speaking to VANGUARD in an interview, Attah who is a co-chairman of the Central Working Committee of PANDEF, said: “I must regrettably say that there is a lot of irresponsible journalism out there. And having said that, I want to immediately follow with an appeal that if the problem in the Niger Delta persists, it is going to affect all of us including the journalists that are in this country. So, if they see a genuine effort to try and calm the situation down, they should support it rather than trying to find a way of discrediting it at once. Nobody went there to ask for any oil bloc. Nobody went there to ask for any contract. At the moment, there are in fact contracts awarded for surveillance to individuals and it has not helped the situation.



“What we suggested in our paper was that they should rejig these and find a way of awarding these contracts to the communities as it were, because it is a lot easier if it is the community that picks the responsibility for the pipelines that are passing through their areas rather than an individual. So, let the community feel a sense of participation. Right from the beginning, we tried to indicate that a sense of alienation is really the major cause of the problem in the Niger Delta. It does not matter how good the food is, if somebody ties your hands behind your back and says open your mouth and spoonfeeds you with the best meal in the world, you are not going to enjoy it. So, it does not matter how much you said you are giving back to the peope, if the people do not feel a sense of participation, of involvement, the alienation continues, then that is where we are having real issues.



“So, we asked for a review of this and people want to interpret it to mean that the Niger Deltans went there to ask for contracts. On the oil blocs, I can quote the Minister for Solid Minerals copiously where he said, “so because I sit in Abuja and give you a licence, you think you can go there and drive people off their land and start exploiting solid minerals? You are wrong. You have to involve the people of the place and you have to carry them along.” It has not happened in the case of oil, and that is what we are complaining about and this is why the people feel that they are just being forced and their products taken away and nobody is involving them. Go and read the ownership composition of Itakpe Iron Ore Company. The community is written into it so that everybody feels a sense of ownership so that nobody wilfully destroys what belongs to them. The Niger Delta today does not have a sense of anything belonging to them other than the position they are left with. So, we want to see how we can correct all of these.



“As a governor under Obasanjo, we formed a company called BEDROCK Oil – Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom – and applied for an oil bloc. These are all oil-producing states asking for one oil bloc and we were denied. Does that give the people a feeling that they have any form of participation in this oil? And it has continued like that. So, we are saying, please, review this matter and see how the people can come into the ownership position of this oil which is naturally found in their land so that they would be the ones determined to protect it; determined to make sure that nobody steals it. People want to change that, and then they now said we went to ask for oil blocs. I think that is divisive.”



http://dawntodusknews.com/nobody-asked-president-buhari-oil-blocs-contracts-obong-victor-attah/

I'm tired of all these mischief makers. Oga Victor Attah you have good points there. As a Niger-Deltan myself i really understood what those demands meant and i support them. There is one person among you who visited the President that i don't like though. That person is EK Clark.


Also, our govts. at the state level need to be more transparent responsible in their duties... Just look at what Delta has become under Uduaghan and Okowa.



I'm for a better Niger-Delta, a not just peaceful Nigeria but one that's justice and merit friendly because it's only where there's justice that there will be peace.

God bless Niger-Delta

God bless President Buhari(In his good deeds).

God Bless Nigeria.

Hmmm. This puts a clearer perspective on things. In my opinion, they're still getting it wrong and begging for peanuts but at least it redirects the narrative from the idea of a greedy few going to demand and corner financial 'kickbacks' in the name of the Niger Delta.

Why will Niger Delta be negotiating for their own property?This is a mockery and cowardice on their part.

Poor communities will own oil blocs?


Mr Man use the word "Niger Delta Elites wants some oil blocs too ....

I was happy when BEDROCK was denied oil bloc license because it was a decoy by the governors to expand their looting frontiers.

I don't give a damn about oil blocs, the elite do. The Ijaw nation and Niger Delta people are mainly concerned about resource control that will benefit the people.