North contributes nothing to Nigeria’s Economy, IYC avers

Popular Niger Delta group, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has bare fang on Northern Nigeria, saying the region has nothing to contribute to Nigeria’s economy.

The group described Northern Nigeria as a parasite on the South-South, particularly the Niger Delta, which it said is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

The IYC, in a press statement accused Northern leaders who claim the North is the backbone of Nigeria of sheer arrogance.

According to the IYC, Northern Nigeria needs the Niger Delta and other parts of the south for economic survival.

The statement signed by IYC spokesman, Eric Omare, also accused Northerners of persistently making provocative statements deliberately to instigate Nigerians against the President Goodluck Jonathan led Federal Government.

According to the group, the content of the Northern position papers as it relates to ownership and management of hydrocarbon resources found in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is highly provocative, insulting, inciting, unpatriotic and deliberately prepared to instigate Niger-Deltans to take up arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Some Northern leaders want to achieve their hidden agenda of making Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan, which they have failed to achieve through Boko Haram, through their provocative and inciting document” IYC claimed.

The group also condemned vehemently the consistent opposition of some Northern delegates to the demand for resource control and restated the right of the people of the Niger Delta to the ownership of the oil and gas found in their lands.

The IYC stressed that the insistence of Northerners to the ownership of oil found in the Niger Delta without thinking of any creative means of generating resources to run their states is a classic demonstration of poor leadership and lack of initiative.

IYC said there are natural resources which can be exploited to generate revenue in the North and therefore challenged Northerners to exploit the resources in their area.

“We wish to state clearly that contrary to the position contained in the said document, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) did not in Article 76 states that the resources found in the territorial waters and continental shelves belongs to the central government” IYC noted.

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