Chairman, Niger Delta Youth Leaders Council and Director General, Jonathan Youth Vanguard, Ebis Orubebe, in this interview with journalists speaks on how he has been able to manage the restive Niger Delta youths and why he wants President Goodluck Jonathan to be re-elected president, among other issues. Asst. Editor Saturday, Sam Anokam, was there and he reports.
As the Chairman of Niger Delta Youth Leaders Council, how do you manage the stubborn Niger Delta youth?
I am a peace loving person. I try to play my role as a leader and if I see trouble anywhere I try to restore peace. If people are agitating or protesting, I try to talk to them. Some of them may be acting based either on not being informed or misinformed. What I try to do is to continue to talk to them to ensure a peaceful living and come up with ideas that will improve the situation rather than applying violence which used to be the situation in the past. You can see that our orientation has changed. We are building a new Niger Delta, we are trying to educate them on the need to come up with brilliant ideas that we can sell to government and various government agencies that are within the Niger Delta area and not by the use of force. By the grace of God, we are trying our best. With the kind of persons leading the youths in the area, the situation will continue to change.
No doubt, under your regime, the crisis in the Niger Delta has subsided. How were you able to do it?
We thank God for giving us the wisdom of leading our youths. We are working together with government agencies to ensure that our youths are taken away from the street. Let me first of all thank the NDDC for introducing several schemes to empower and build our youth. Recently, they initiated a programme called ‘Niger Delta Volunteer Service Scheme’ as a way of positively engaging our youths. The new scheme by NDDC to help the unemployed youths in the Niger Delta was a laudable programme that would go a long way in reducing social vices associated with youths as a result of idleness. I just hope it will accommodate as many as possible youths and at the same time become a programme that will be sustainable. So, I advise that they involve those that are really in need of job in order for them to have a means of living and not on political considerations. On other youth empowerment programmes designed by the office of the Special Adviser on Youth to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NDDC, I believe that these programmes will take care of most of the youths. NDDC is just one of the Federal Government agencies in the region. I urge the other Federal Government agencies too to develop youth empowerment programmes just as NDDC is doing and in doing that most of our youths will be taken care of.
The NDDC is about taking off a training programme in Benin Republic. They want to train people in various schemes especially in carpentry, POP making, so that when you want to build, you don’t have to import people from Ghana, Togo and other countries. So, in order to discourage that, they are now engaging thousands of Niger Delta youth to take them out of the street, to discourage militancy and crisis in Niger Delta like we used to experience in the Niger Delta Area. I want to personally thank the entire board of the NDDC especially the MD/CEO Dan-Abia and his SA Youth, George Turnar, for the wonderful programmes they are implementing to help the youths of the Niger Delta.
You are also the DG of a group called ‘Jonathan Youth Vanguard’; what is it about?
Jonathan Youth Vanguard is an official youth body drumming support for President Goodluck Jonathan re-election with its membership cutting across every state, every tribe, every region of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. Our job purely is to mobilise youth and women support for Mr. President’s transformation agenda.
Recently, your group embarked on a one million-an march in support of President Jonathan’s re-election. Do you think President Jonathan has done well since he became the President to deserve such?
We, the youth of this country and Nigerians in general have seen what our past leaders did during their administration and for us, Mr. President has done excellently well within the period he assumed office as the President of Nigeria. So, for us, there is need for us to continue to drum up support for his reelection because of his tremendous achievement. We are calling on every meaningful Nigerian to support this transformation agenda. Our group as the official youth body is calling on all the Nigerian youth and women to support and encourage the President’s re-election come 2015. I also want to use this opportunity to thank the numerous groups for unanimously endorsing President Jonathan for second term, especially the PDP Governors Forum, the PDP NEC and TAN.
You said the President has done excellently well, how did you come up with such assessment?
On education, as soon as he took over, he created nine universities across the six geo-political zones and today, all are functional which has reduced the stress of getting admission into universities. Outside that, he also provided intervention funds for universities and other tertiary institutions and it was aired on broadcast stations, where the President was disbursing funds to various institutions. He has also set up ‘Almajiri’ schools as part of the effort to alleviate the insecurity challenge that we are facing in the country today. This is the first time in the history of the country that a sitting President has done such for free. Uniforms and education materials are provided them. Also, the girl-child education is being encouraged. To me, President Goodluck Jonathan has done excellently well in education sector.
On security, you would agree with me that the President is doing his best because no President in Nigeria faced the kind of security challenge that confronted the Jonathan’s administration. But you can see the successes his administration has recorded in recent time in the fight against terrorism in Borno and Yobe states. Some persons have no belief in him but he has disappointed them. We have all seen that the President meant well for this country and he is determined to fight terrorism to a standstill and we are beginning to see the successes. He has signed bilateral agreements with some Western countries in order to improve on the fight against terrorism in the country especially in the northern part of the country.
In the Niger Delta, you would agree with me that the situation is no longer the way it used to be before he took over. He has been able to bring to a standstill the crisis in the area, especially the militancy issue through the amnesty office and we are all enjoying peace in the area. Even in the Southeast, the kidnapping problem has also been put to an end. The President deserves commendation and not condemnation.
America predicted that Nigeria will break up in 2015 and with the insecurity problem facing the country, don’t you think that their prediction is coming to pass?
Nigeria will not break up. Nigeria will continue to be a united nation. As far as I am concerned, the issue of 2015 election might not be like that of the 2011. People are just making unnecessary noise, especially people from the opposition party. I don’t see it as a serious threat. I think in recent time, the opposition party leaders are trying to advise their followers to take it easy because they know the security implication. By the grace of God, there won’t be any break up, we will have a united country and as we all know, Mr. President is a peaceful man and he is doing his best to ensure that Nigeria remains a united and peaceful nation.
As the leader of the youth of the Niger Delta, what is your advice for the youths of Niger Delta and Nigerians ahead of 2015 general elections?
Like I said earlier, I am a peace loving person and for that, I will not allow any Niger Deltan to take up arms against anybody in 2015 general elections. Mr. President has said this on several occasions that his ambition does not worth the blood of anybody not even a goat. We, in the Jonathan Youth Vanguard, are peace-loving people. So, if people in other quarters are hoping to make troubles, we believe that the security agencies are capable of handling any situation. Even if we are provoked, we know the security agencies will handle it. So, we will continue to advise the Niger Delta youth to continue to take the position we have agreed on, to continue to live in peace and harmony and to enable us build unity among us.
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