Niger-Delta After Oil: How To Avert The Oloibiri Metaphor, By Aginighan

[Shola Sholaz]

If we neglect to reduce the development gap between the Niger Delta and the rest of Nigeria and the oil wells  dry up or oil ceases to be a revenue earner for Nigeria, then we will all be bowailing the re-enactment of the Olobiri  metaphor, according to Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, a former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Aginighan spoke in a paper presented at the third Ijaw Foundation Convention held in Houston, Texas, US.
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Niger Delta is the territory of tributaries and distributaries of the River Niger in the Southern belt of Nigeria made up of marshy swamps, estuaries, meandering creeks, rivers and rivulets occupied chiefly by the Ijaw ethnic nationality and adjoining ethnic minorities, namely the Itsekiri, the Ilaje, the Ogoni and pockets of Isoko, Urhobo, Ukwuani and Ibibio communities. It is the territory of Nigeria where Government gives the excuse of difficult terrain for the neglect of its development.