The committee is a product of opinions from elders and youth leaders in the Niger Delta who unanimously opposed another summit or jamboree on the Niger Delta. It was as if the peoples of the Niger Delta had read my 2006 "The Niger Delta Development Question: A Planning Paralysis" essay (published at Nigeriaworld.com) where I had suggested against further commissions or committees to study the Niger Delta Question. In that essay, I had opined that the problems of the Niger Delta are so basic and easy to solve that further commissions were unnecessary. 

So, I was happy to witness in my lifetime the scenario whereby a majority of the people of the Niger Delta echoed the same sentiments thereby leading to the birth of the NDTC. On this note, President Yar'Adua deserves to be commended for listening to the people. That is what servant-leadership is all about afterall!

Why do I think the committee is failing? Information reaching me indicate that the committee has been busy working on new memos they had asked the public and specific interest groups to submit. Some of the groups who have submitted memos were the same groups that kicked against a summit to proffer new solutions. These groups have already preferred the consolidation and implementation of existing reports but have now been made to submit new position statements. In my opinion, that is a distraction from the mandate of the NDTC. It is for this reason I think it has failed. 

I call on the Federal Government to disregard and dissolve the Niger Delta Technical Committee as presently constituted and form a new committee with clearer heads. I make this call for the following reasons:

1. The call for new memorandums and the use of those for the purpose of arriving at the report of the committee is a deviation from the desire of the Niger Delta people.
2. The committee does not have the resources, in the time allocated, to judiciously review such avalanche of memos.
3. The quality of work required to do justice to past reports like the 1958 Willink Commission Report and the 2001 Ogomudia report is now diminished by the effort put into the new memos.
4. I have reviewed some of the new memos submitted at the committee's website and found them to contain materials that are not helpful to a unified resolution of the Niger Delta question.
5. It is irresponsible on the part of the committee to deviate from its original mandate.

Thank you.

Hosiah Emmanuel

Singapore

Robot  # 1 | 27.10.2008 07:46

Why do I think the committee is failing? Information reaching me indicate that the committee has been busy working on new memos they had asked the public and specific interest groups to submit. Some of the groups who have submitted memos were the same groups that kicked against a summit to proffer new solutions. These groups have already preferred the consolidation and implementation of existing reports but have now been made to submit new position statements. ...Read the full article.