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Buhari’s Aide Tasks Niger Delta Youths To Follow Adaka Boro’s Example

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The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd) has urged Niger Delta youths to be as strategic and proactive as the late Major Issac Jasper Adaka Boro, who he said saw the wisdom in a greater country and sacrificed his life fighting for a united Nigeria after initially fighting for separatism.

Boroh, who made this call during this year’s Issac Boro Day, pointed out that the legend of Niger Delta struggle was unique in that “when it was time for agitation, he agitated, when it was the season for protests, he led it, and when he thought the times called for armed struggle, he established the Ijaw Volunteer Force to prosecute it. However when it was time to lay down his arms, he did, was tried and got amnesty.”

The presidential aide noted that Boro saw the amnesty he received as a bond to maintain peace and did not return to picking up arms against the state, adding that “when he did pick up the gun, it was at the prompting of the Federal Government which was fighting a war to keep Nigeria united. He fought as a Major in the Army, and when death came, it met him at his duty post defending his country.”

According to him, “the youths of the Niger Delta need to be as strategic and proactive as Boro. While the region had a good case and national and international sympathy which led to the granting of a comprehensive Amnesty in 2009, the renewed vandalism of oil facilities is indefensible and must stop.

“The region has for long suffered from environmental devastation caused by oil exploitation, so, the further devastation caused by vandalism will only compound the situation. Rather, the youths should key into the planned Clean-up Exercise in Ogoni-Land including the mass job opportunities it offers, and ensure the extension of the Clean-up to other parts of the Region.

“With low oil prices, fracking, especially in the United States and the high probability of oil production in other parts of the country, less attention maybe paid to the Niger Delta, so it makes sense for the people of the Region to maximize the opportunities they have now including the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the Derivation formula that gives the region extra funds.

“There are also the mass job opportunities to be created from the construction of the Calabar-Lagos railways. Doubtlessly many of the region’s problems have not been solved, but the country has shown a marked interest in giving a listening ear, so if there are issues some people want addressed, they should table them instead of a resort to violence which will alienate the region from the rest of the country.

Boroh, who insisted that the region is in need of thinkers who can further its cause for sustainable development, said; “There is nothing to avenge, the region is not in need of avengers, the region is in need of thinkers who can further its cause for sustainable development.

“We in the Presidential Amnesty Programme are happy that the Niger Delta ex-agitators, elders, leaders, governors, and practically all the people of the Niger Delta have disassociated themselves from those who continue to live in the past in which violence was supposed to pay. I advise Niger Delta youths to think and focus on the future and learn from the example of Jasper Adaka Boro who after initially fighting for separatism, saw the wisdom in a greater country and sacrificed his life fighting for a united Nigeria.”

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