Niger Delta Governors Blasted Over Under Development Of The Zone

Niger Delta region governors have been blasted over the decay of infrastructure and underdevelopment in their States.

The governors were blamed by the chairman of Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, NYP, Moses Siloko Siasia for failing to tap into what he described as the economic potentials of the region.

He said the governors were busy creating an army of youths that would someday rise against the zone.

Siasia who spoke with newsmen stressed that the Niger Delta was economically viable.

He enumerated some of the key areas of economic viability in the region to include human resource, agriculture, oil and gas, blue sea economy, and ecotourism among others.

His words: “There is no society globally that has advanced without its human beings. The greatest resource or asset of every society is in its people.

“I have met a lot of experts and professionals from the Niger Delta region who are doing extremely well in different fields of endeavor.

“We must ensure that we identify and engage them. Countries that have advanced such as China, Singapore, Malaysia and others, looked at their bests brains and how they can actually make them contribute their expertise to engineer economic growth.

“As key stakeholders, we must urgently harness the mass-energy and idealism of our young people into productive ventures.

“Agriculture also has great potentials in the Niger Delta region. We have great soil for cassava cultivation and rice production. We can have three seasons of rice production in a year without any form of irrigation.

“But in Northern Nigeria today that have taken the glory for rice production, it is difficult to do three seasons of farming without irrigation. So we must tap into this.

“On plantain which is one of our crops, we must ensure we do a lot of plantain plantation and also encourage local governments to go into the production of plantain. We also have ogbono, pepper, vegetables, and many others. These are crops that can grow in our region and we can use them for the collective good of our people.”