Opone Blame Nigerian Elites for the Nation’s Woes ……Laments Marginalisation of Ndokwa
By Barth Gold
KWALE/Nigeria: The President-General, Ndokwa Neku Union NNU, Chief Johnson Opone FCA, has blamed the under development of Nigeria to political elites who do not put in their best to ensure that the country move forward, noting that the peasants and the ordinary citizens that have worked for the sustainability of the country.
Chief Opone, who was speaking during a media parley with the Indigenous Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists ( NUJ ), Delta State Council in Kwale, the Headquarters of Ndokwa West LGA, regretted that; “The elites in the country are most lazy sect of Nigerians who don’t put in their best for the country instead it is the peasants that work for the country.”
He also traced the Nigerian problems to the 1966, when the military enter the polity and altered the constitution, saying this current structure of Nigeria cannot aide development.
“Nigeria got it wrong after the independence. Before then all the regions control their resources and fifty percent to the central, there was healthy competition and the economy was booming across the country but when the military intervened they altered the political system, now every states and local government go to the federal for allocation, this is not healthy.”
Continuing; “Now look at the interest rates, no investors will borrow money to create wealth and pay high interest rates that is why the youths are jobless. Those who are working are not well paid, that is why corruption is striving because the workers are not well paid.”
Opone who is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Accountancy, maintained that it is good to have vision but more importantly there must be a programme to drive the vision, insisting that a lot of things are wrong with the Nigeria system.
He challenged the journalists to hive right information at all time so that people can have the right information to work with. “We must challenge the government to do the right thing. We must beg the leaders to go back to drawing board, to think of what to do to improve the economy. We must elects leaders with proven characters that can give us the dividends of democracy. ”
The Ndokwa Neku leader regretted the under development and the marginalisation of the Ndokwa Nation, saying; “Kwale became LGA headquarters in 1905 yet no meaningful development to show for it. The NNU is engaging the government at all levels to present our request in a constructive way. I do not believe in harsh criticism of those in government but those in government must serve the people.”
On the activities of the oil companies in Ndokwa nation, Chief Opone chided the oil companies for not doing enough for the people, pointing out that the oil companies prefers working with those in Hostcom who are not knowledgeable and have no facts to work with.
While calling on the oil companies to be alive to it corporative social responsibility, he challenge the federal government to build Modular refineries in each state of Niger Delta.
