Resource Control: S’South Govs Seek NNPC’s Boss Seat

In what appear like a reverberation of the  sing –song that is called ‘resource control’ governors of the six states of the South-south region of the country have demanded that an indigene of any of their states should be made the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Speaking under the aegis of the South-south governors’ forum the governors declared that such an appointment was necessary to appreciate the massive oil exploration in the region.
Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, who said this in Lagos last week at a parley with the organised private sector as part of the build up to the South-south Economic Summit scheduled for Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, between  April 22 and 24, 2009 added that making a south- south person the chief executive  of the NNPC will further give the region a sense of belonging.
According to the governor, the six states that make up the zone are blessed with abundant natural material and human resources, including oil and gas, tourism and agriculture, adding that the region has no reason to go capo in hand begging for money from the federal government.
The governors’ request came barely 24 hours after a similar request was made by Niger Delta elders, under the auspices of Delta State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Leaders’ Forum (DESOGAPLEF).
The delegation of DESOGAPLEF had told vice president Goodluck Jonathan that recent appointments into the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and NNPC were lopsided and had no reckoning with the status of the oil producing states.
The delegation had said that it was worried over the continuous non-appointment of Niger Delta indigenes to head the NNPC and the PTDF since their establishment, adding that they became more frustrated by the recent appointment of the heads of the two organisations who were non indigenes of the region.
Justifying the forthcoming economic summit, the governor acknowledged that it would always be difficult for individual state to achieve as much as when they have teamed up to tackle the problem of economic development of the region.