Keyamo: Any ‘Niger Delta Son’ Against Restructuring Is A ‘Bastard’
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has described any indigene of the Niger Delta region that is against restructuring as “a bastard”.
Keyamo stated this when governors and other stakeholders from the region met with a presidential delegation led by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, Rivers State on Tuesday.
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The South-South leaders had during the meeting demanded restructuring of the country to ensure “true federalism” and guarantee peace, security and stability of the country.
Keyamo, who was part of the delegation, had said at the meeting: “It’s not because we are here today, we will come back home tomorrow and any Niger Delta son that does not support resource control and fiscal federalism is a bastard of the region.”
The minister added that, “So we support it (restructuring), but I must caution that it must be a collective effort, do not think that it is the fault from this government, it has always been there, our son was President, a southerner was President as a Yoruba man. Luckily for us, the Deputy Senate President is the Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, let us take our demands there, let’s go and fight our case there. Nobody should fall for the narrative that it is President Muhammadu Buhari that caused the problem why they have not amended the constitution. Let’s take all our demands there and let us go and fight it there.”
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THE WHISTLER had reported that the South-South leaders made a seven-point demand from the Federal Government, which included the relocation of the headquarters of all subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the region.
The regions seven-point demand was presented the delegation by the chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum and Governor of Delta, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Okowo said the recent #EndSARS protests as well as the violence and looting that followed the demonstrations were a pointer that things were not going well in the country.
“For us in the South-South, the #ENDSARS protest is a metaphor of almost all that is wrong with us, our refusal to properly understand issues, and imbibe and entrench the virtues of justice, fairness and equity.
“The previous system of true federalism was jettisoned and it created a powerful center controlling and distributing all the resources unevenly.
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“There was now a strong desire to restructure the country in order to guarantee peace, security, stability and progress of the nation.
“The region demands true federalism and devolution of powers to the states, including creating and managing their own police and security architecture, true fiscal federalism guided by the principle of derivation, revenue sharing and control of resources by each state,” he said.
