Niger Delta Youths Ask Jonathan To Quit

Niger Delta youths under the aegis of Niger Delta Youth Council, on Thursday asked the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, to resign his position, citing poor handling of the protracted crises rocking the region as reason for their call.

The body said the region had benefited nothing from the occupation of the exalted office by Jonathan for over one year.

The National President of NDYC, Mr. Donatus Ebisin, in an interview with our correspondent in Warri, Delta State, described the seven-point agenda of President Umaru Yar’Adua as it affected the Niger Delta as a ruse.

Ebisin said Jonathan failed to attract development to the region despite his status as the nation’s second most powerful citizen, adding that Yar’Adua and Jonathan were merely deceiving the people of the region.

Ebisin said, “The Yar’Adua/Jonathan government is not sincere, it is just rigmaroling in the past one year. The so-called seven-point agenda is deceptive, it is obvious that this government has no plan for the Niger Delta in particular and the country as a whole.

“Jonathan for instance has failed his people as there was nothing on the ground in the region to show that the nation’s number two citizen is from the area.”

The Ijaw Youth Council, the umbrella body for the youth of Ijaw ethnic nationality, at a news conference in Benin, the capital of Edo State on Sunday, had also asked Jonathan to quit over his alleged failure to use his position in the government to attract patronage to the region.

In a related development, the Nigeria Labour Congress said it had followed with concern the lingering controversy over the conduct of the proposed Niger Delta Summit, particularly the appointment of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, as Chairman and urged the FG to reconsider its position.

Meanwhile, a civil society activist, Mr. George-Hill Anthony, on Thursday urged the Federal Government to implement previous recommendations on the Niger Delta instead of initiating a new peace summit.

Anthony told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that the planned peace summit of the administration was a duplication of effort.