By Ovie Okpare
Immediate past governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has identified hostile attitude among Niger Deltans as one of the reasons the region has remained undeveloped and unindustrialized.
Uduaghan spoke as a guest speaker on Thursday in Asaba, Delta State capital, at the 2021 Annual Lecture of Delta Online Publishers Forum (DOPF).
The former governor speaking on the theme “Niger Delta Economy: Building A New Face For The Region” blamed the hostile attitude on the activity of youths and local politics in the region.
According to him, not until the hostile attitude among the people of the region is addressed, the region will remain unattractive to possible investors and industrialization.
“The Niger Delta region has been so hostile to investors and we cannot have the region industrialized until we change our attitude. We must go back to our communities to plead with them to be friendly to investors.
“We must encourage people to have production facilities. It may not be very large but let’s encourage small industries. We must also encourage big industries to also come by creating enabling environment.
“We need to collaboration between the oil companies, government and the people to encourage infrastructural development in the region”, he said.
Uduaghan, however, lamented that despite the rich natural resources in the region, such resources have not been harness for the betterment of the region and her people.
The former governor also advocated for the opening up of the seaports in the region so as to create a new economy in Niger Delta.
He urged the federal and state governments to collaborate and revitalize the seaports to open up the region for industrialization.
“Ports are very critical and I think we have the highest numbers of ports in the country. They are very critical for import and export. But unfortunately, many of them are down and the only active one is Warri port.
“Effort to encourage those who bought Koko and Burutu ports has not yielded result and I don’t think those who bought them have the capacity. We have port Harcourt port, Calabar port but the problem of Calabar port is because of its shallowness. The Niger Delta sea Ports are performing sub-optimally”, Uduaghan added.
He reminded journalists especially publishers of online news outlets in the region that they have critical role to play in ensuring “there is sanity in the region.
“Do not forget that ther social media does not forget, so, whatever you put up can either build or destroy the image of the region. Of course, this can affect the economic development of the region.”
