Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua believes a peace summit slated for this month on the Niger Delta will end the crisis in the restive oil-rich region, his office said on Friday.
”The president believes that the summit is necessary to obtain a firm and binding commitment from all stakeholders to stop all acts of violence and criminality which have unfortunately turned the Niger Delta into a no-go area,” presidential spokesperson Segun Adeniyi said in a statement.
Oil companies and their personnel are being increasingly targeted by armed groups who have stepped up kidnappings and sabotage in the region in the past two years.
Nigeria’s daily oil production has been cut by about one-quarter because of the attacks and it was overtaken as Africa’s largest producer by Angola in April, according to figures from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
”Under these circumstances, the president considered it absolutely necessary to engage all stakeholders in the region in meaningful and purposeful dialogue aimed at removing fundamental obstacles to the implementation of his administration’s plans for Niger Delta,” Adeniyi said.
The government has been planning the long-delayed event since Yar’Adua came to power last year, but there are fears that the talks may not solve the region’s problems.
The appointment of Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian diplomat who was until recently the United Nations envoy to Burma, to head the event has drawn criticism from those angry at some of his past utterances on issues related to the region.
Gambari was specifically accused of defending the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmental activist from the delta who was hanged by the dictatorial regime of General Sani Abacha.
He also drew flak for painting the summit as a national phenomenon rather than something more directly related to the people of the Niger Delta.
It was not clear if a replacement would be installed as chairperson before the summit gets under way at a date that has still not been fixed. — Sapa-AFP