Yemi-Osinbajo

 

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has given his deputy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo a fresh mandate on the Niger Delta.

Osinbajo will now head a special presidential delegation whose mission will be to resolve the crisis in Nigeria’s oil rich region which sustains the country economically.

This is an obvious departure from the old approach where prominent elders from the region had been leading the efforts to resolve the issues at stake.

Before now, the Vice President had been on a fact-finding mission to the region. He had already covered the states of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Akwa-Ibom and Edo. The oil-producing states he is yet to visit are Cross River, Abia and Ondo.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.) who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Monday discloseed that the choice of Osinbajo was part of Buhari’s “strategic plan to engender peace in the region.” He said the government was working to build confidence in the people of the Niger Delta while at the same time identifying the problems and their solutions.

Said Borroh: “President Buhari knew what he was doing when he directed the Vice President to  lead the delegation. You need to see him in action when he visited different communities in the oil-producing states.

“There is no doubt that the President knows that peacee in the Niger Delta region is crucial to the development of the entire country.”