THE deputy governor of Delta State, Professor Amos Utuama, on Saturday, centred the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2011 polls within the context of providing solutions to the problems of underdevelopment and agitation for resource control by the Niger Delta.
Utuama, a professor of law, speaking at the launch of a book, “Agonies to Triumph of the Minorities,” written in honour of Chief Fred Brume, in Effurun, Delta State, said Jonathan’s presidency beyond 2011 was the sure path to the realisation of the agitation of the people of the Niger Delta to control their resource.
According to him, Jonathan’s presidential aspiration in the 2011 polls represented the political solution that the Niger Delta and even the larger Nigerian nation required to address the yearnings and aspirations of the oil producing communities.
“So the political solution is around and we should not shy away from it… This is hope rising for the Niger Delta people. If we miss it, we are missing opportunity for life. Our children and generations to come will not forgive us,” he said.
The deputy governor, however, said “I do not believe that we should use the resources to the exclusion of Nigerians. I believe in the Nigeria project. This is the era of globalisation… For those of us to whom God has made possible to have a large nation in Africa…we must not dismember it.”
He said President Jonathan had a constitutional right to aspire to become president in 2011, adding that it was in the recognition of this that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made it clear that he was free to run.
Utuama added that other aspirants for the presidential race from other parts of the country enjoyed similar constitutional rights, adding that rather than excluding a particular aspirants, the electorate and party delegates, as the case may be, should be allowed to determine their choice.
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