Prominent Ijaw leader and former federal minister, Edwin Clark, has told the Muhammadu Buhari administration that peace efforts in the restive Niger Delta region will amount to nothing if elders in the region aren’t carried along in the negotiations.
Militants operating from the oil rich region have all but grounded Nigeria’s oil dependent economy by vandalizing gas installations. The federal government is reportedly in talks with certain militant groups in a bid to halt the bombings.
Clark was speaking in Warri, Delta State, during a consultative council meeting with Seriake Dickson, Bayelsa governor, and Kingsley Otuaro, Delta deputy governor, all in attendance.
Said Clark: “In 2008 and 2009 similar incident happened and Gbaramatu was affected. We elders and leaders intervened and we got amnesty.
“Today we hear that federal government is planning, already talking or negotiating with militants and nobody has consulted us.
“That will not work. These children are our children and we cannot fold our hands when they are being attacked and pretend not to notice.
“We must be involved in what government wants to do.”