A Port Harcourt-based environmental activist, Mr Celestine Akpobari, has described the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s Friday visit to Bayelsa on Friday as a step in the right direction.
Akpobari who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Sunday, said it provided an opportunity for the Federl Government to dialogue with the people on the way forward.
Osibanjo was in the oil-rich state in continuation of government’s diplomatic moves, to end militancy in the Niger Delta and increase the country’s crude oil production.
“The people have been marginalised in spite the huge contribution from their land to the economy of the nation.
“Economically, the nation can’t survive for now without the resources from the Niger Delta,” he said.
According to Akpobari, the visit should be followed with more development in the Niger Delta region.
“Usually, when even a local government chairman visits a community, the people will smile because a project will accompany such a visit.
“Let there be a reasonable outcome of this visit that will make the people smile,” he added.
The acting president led a federal government’s delegation on a similar visit to Delta in January, and he is expected to visit Rivers in no distant time. (NAN)
