The Country Director of the Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa, has urged the Minister of Niger Delta Development, Engr. Abubakar Momoh, to maintain focus and disregard the attempts of ethnic chauvinists who resort to blackmail for attention.

Mayaki said it comes as no surprise to witness certain individuals in Edo state resorting to tactics of seeking relevance and promoting ethnicity, rather than extending support to the Minister of Niger Delta Development. He added saying, “instead of rallying behind him to address the challenges facing the region, they choose to blackmail by writing petitions against him over the allocation of projects in the 2024 budget of the ministry”. 

According to the Country Director, “instead of studying the 2024 budget to see projects allocated to Edo South Senatorial District, such as the design and construction for the dualisation of Benin-Agbor Expressway from Ramat Park to Uromi Park, Agbor Town, and the construction of Igbinosa Street in Uselu, Benin City, among others, these blackmailers and their sponsors rushed to the National Assembly with a fictitious petition to smear the Minister’s hard-earned reputation”.

He stated that the fact that the Minister is from Edo State does not reduce his role to that of the Minister of Edo State alone but rather as the Minister of Niger Delta overseeing nine states, with the mandate to spread projects across the region and not just in Benin City.

His words, “This is a ministry suffering from poor budgetary allocations, which these ‘emergency Benin lovers’ and chauvinists have remained silent about, while stakeholders from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, among other states, have been appealing to the President, Senator Bola Tinubu, and the National Assembly to consider an enhanced budget for the ministry. One would have expected that as a Minister from Edo State, these blackmailers would have considered championing measures capable of enhancing the ministry’s allocation. However, as armchair critics, they prefer blackmail and ethnicity over good governance”.

The group described as shameless and irresponsible the fact that these chauvinists would go to the extent of deliberately distorting and misinterpreting the Minister’s intentions in the allocation of projects in the 2024 budget, in an attempt to smear his image as a Pan-Niger Delta leader.

“Engr. Abubakar Momoh is a Pan-Niger Delta leader; a symbol of national unity, regional cohesion, and tolerance who is comfortable and loved in all parts of the Niger Delta and not an ethnic champion.

“We call on the leadership of the National Assembly to disregard the shenanigans of this emergency Benin ethnic group and remain focused on the mission of the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to rescue, reunite, rebuild, and restore the region on the path of peace, national cohesion, and economic prosperity, which the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration represents.”