A coalition of Ijaw traditional rulers and community leaders has issued a formal demand to the Federal Government to establish visible governance presence in over 200 remote communities across Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers states that have never received any federal infrastructure or social services despite sitting atop Nigeria most productive oil fields.
The demand was presented in a petition submitted to the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, signed by over 140 community leaders from 18 local government areas.
Paramount Ruler of the Ekpetiama Kingdom, HRH King Bubaraye Dakolo, who led the delegation, told journalists after the submission: We are not asking for charity. We are asking for the basic functions of government that every Nigerian deserves. These communities produce the oil that keeps this country running. Yet they have no roads, no electricity, no hospitals, and no schools that function.
The petition specifically requests the establishment of federal presence through the deployment of functional primary health centres, solar-powered water treatment facilities, and the commencement of abandoned NDDC road contracts in no fewer than 50 communities within the next 12 months.
Presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale acknowledged receipt of the petition and said it would be reviewed by the relevant ministries, without providing a specific timeline for action.
Civil society observers noted that similar petitions have been submitted to every administration since 1999 with little follow-through, and called for the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism to track government commitments to Niger Delta communities.
