N’Delta monarchs demand constitutional roles
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Forum of Traditional Rulers of the Oil and Mineral Producing Communities, Delta State, has claimed that the Niger Delta region has not achieved sustainable development due to lack of constitutional roles for traditional rulers.
The monarchs said they were ready to work for the region but frustrated because they lack power to back up responsibility.
TROMPCOM bared its mind during a one-day capacity building workshop on emerging trends in rural governance, organized by the Community and Rural Development Unit of Niger Delta Development Commission for the executives of TROMPCOM in Delta State on Saturday.
Addressing journalists at the end of the workshop, the Ovie of Ozoro Kingdom in the Isoko North Local Government Area, who is also the Chairman of TROMPCOM, Delta State, His Majesty, Anthony Ogbogbo Ibuka I, lauded the NDDC for organising the workshop for the monarchs.
“We are also subjected to the whims and caprices of the ruling government.
“It is a forum to ginger us on what we are supposed to do; and advise us on how we are supposed to go about them,” he said.
He noted that the workshop gave the traditional rulers opportunities to brainstorm on the contemporary issues inhibiting sustainable development in the Niger Delta region.
“The monarchs were able to identify and highlight notable challenges of the Petroleum Industry Act as affecting the host communities.
“The TROMPCOM Delta State executives also used the forum to make some suggestions and recommendations to the organisers for possible collation and presentation to the appropriate authorities.
“We are subjected to the whims and caprices of the ruling government, the traditional rulers are ready to work but they are frustrated.
“The government should recognise the roles of traditional rulers and ensure operational guidelines to that effect.
“In this regard, advocacy to integrate traditional rulers should be sustained.
“Lack of constitutional roles for traditional rulers has been hampering our contributions. It brings us downward.
“If there is need to checkmate identified excesses from some quarters, individuals will challenge you; they will oppose you; they will frustrate you because you don’t have something to point out to, to say I am working within the ambit of my power,” he said.
Earlier in a keynote address, the NDDC workshop facilitator, Stanley Okereke, a climatologist and peace advocate, called on all stakeholders, especially the government, the oil and gas companies and others, to come together to work in synergy, not working in isolation, or else we keep having retrogressive development.
Okereke emphasised the imperative of traditional rulers utilising their indigenous knowledge as local content into peace initiatives in the Niger Delta “hence they have key roles to play in the narratives”.
He said, “If the traditional rulers are playing their roles effectively and efficiently, then the issue of violent conflict will actually not happen.
“The way of managing conflict or preventing conflict will help in ensuring sustainable development in the Niger Delta as any development without sustainability is a waste of resources.
“Consequently, we need to develop a framework that will ensure that the traditional rulers are integrated into the system for managing peace and conflict in the Niger Delta.”
