The truth about Niger Delta is yet to be unraveled – Billy Harry

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Vanguard

18 March 2011

The truth about Niger Delta is yet to be unraveled – Billy Harry

Billy Harry, Chairman, South-South Forum; National Vice President, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA; Chairman, National Oil and Gas Trade Group and Chairman of the Port-Harcourt Chamber of Commerce in this interview, speaks on the region’s support for President Jonathan, the unresolved Niger Delta issue saying that the truth about militancy and Amnesty in the region is yet to be unravelled. . Excerpt.

On South-South support for Jonathan

The good thing about the South-South is that we’re very republican and everybody seems to have an idea of what they want to do and where they want to go. And typical of the way every South-South person has gone, our individual independent pervades in our decisions and actions that we take.

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So, what is the truth and the real roadmap to solve the situation?

The truth is development. Development that the people feel they’ve been denied. The people genuinely see that they have been denied. It has to be properly delineated in a way that you can solve each problem on the way.

And if you ask me from the South-South chambers, the issue of the Niger-Delta is not a political problem. It is an economic problem which must be tackled with expertise. Though political will must be there to deliberately enforce the economic road-map that could generate the result, it is not about giving a hundred thousand to an individual.

It is about de-briefing the youth, it is about educating the youth, it is about showing them a picture that is achievable and that can keep them focused on future. The mentality that has been sold to them will not even allow it, and that is why we are calling on al the stakeholders to work with the South-South Chambers of Commerce on this issue of the Niger Delta.

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What is your view of the NDDC then?

I believe in the NDDC but the body itself is being directed and works in a way that makes it inefficient. What NDDC is supposed to do as an intervention is to actually implement the idea. the ideas are there but why are they not implementing it.

Those who are giving the ideas are part of the system. They don’t understand you can use N2,000 to grow a business, so what they need is actually business men. For instance, if I’m the head of the NDDC, all the quarrel going on between the head and the directors will not be there. You’re there to deliver a job and you’ve a time-frame, we don’t have time to start picking on ourselves.

They are not expediently handling it because of their background. The appointing authorities should consider that and not because he is my brother or my friend. As much as I believe in the NDDC, it is not performing and cannot perform because they are not well structured or educated enough to know the realisation to make them work.

Therefore, they must change. We’re not saying remove the NDDC MD, the process has already been made, but put the private sector to work with them, and with that political will, give them the authority to be an oversight factor. We need a scenario where when an American Chamber of Commerce calls on the President that they are going to visit, it is not a tea-party, it is issue about how to grow the economy because the economy is the baseline. if the economy is stable our polity will be stable.