‘Buhari frustrating establishment of maritime university’

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is frustrating the infrastructural development of the Niger Delta region.

The group says the president has decided to victimise the region for supporting former president, Goodluck Jonathan in the last election.

In a statement signed by Eric Omare, spokesman of the council, IYC said it would not “accept a situation where the federal government is only interested in the free flow of crude oil and not in the human and infrastructural development of the region”.

“The deliberate efforts by the administration of President Buhari to frustrate the take-off of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta state and the continuation of the NIMASA Science and Technical College, Okoloba is political victimisation taken too far,” the statement read.

“Since assumption of office, all steps taken by President Buhari and his kinsmen with respect to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) are all geared towards the frustration of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, NIMASA Science and Technical College, Okoloba, Delta state and any project or programme perceived to be of benefit to the Niger Delta region.

“President Buhari’s administration has ordered all ongoing projects, programmes and the take-off of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko to be stopped, whereas other tertiary institutions in other part of the country where maritime programmes are being sponsored by NIMASA are allowed to continue.

“These institutions are Ibrahim Babangida University, Minna, Niger State, University of Lagos, Federal University of Technology, Gombe and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the approval for the maritime programmes in these institutions were given at same with the Maritime University, Okerenkoko.

“The IYC is convinced that this is a continuation of President Buhari’s victimisation of the Niger Delta region especially the Ijaw people as a fall out of the last presidential election. This is totally unexpected of a statesman which President Buhari ought to be.

“It would interest Nigerians and the world to know that these institutions and a few others are the only federal presence in the Ijaw areas of the Niger Delta region apart from the oil and gas facilities littered everywhere and acting as a curse and sorrow to our people.

“The IYC cannot fathom any reason why President Buhari administration cannot allow institutions that would address some of the educational challenges facing our people in the Niger Delta region, but is only interested in the free flow of the crude oil resources in the region.”