Ogoni Visit: Fayose Says Buhari Has Surrendered to Militants, Calls for Dialogue

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s cancellation of his scheduled official visit to Rivers State to flag off clean-up Ogoniland was an embarrassment.
He has therefore, urged him to dialogue with the Niger Delta Militants, especially the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) in order to end hostilities in the oil rich region and save the Nigerian economy from imminent collapse.
Fayose said Buhari’s failure to attend the flag-off on Thursday apparently because of threat from the Niger Delta militants was a demonstration that the President had surrendered to the superior powers of the militants.

It should be recalled that the NDA had warned President Buhari to stay away from the Niger Delta region if he desired to live.‎
According to a statement issued by Lere Olayinka, the governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Fayose said it was shameful and embarrassing that the President, a retired miliitary general, could succumb to threat from militants despite that he told Nigerians that he was going to lead from the fronts

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Fayose, who wondered why the President was not always interested in visiting states in the country as against his penchant for overseas trips, added that it was time that the President stopped acting like a foreign president.
He said it was obvious that the President’s approach to civil unrest of any kind under the government was causing more security problems in the country, adding that “the President cannot afford to continue to talk tough on issues that dialogue can resolve.”
The governor said: “Now that the President has surrendered to the threat and intimidation of the Niger Delta Avengers, he should emulate late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua by having a round-table talks with the Niger Delta militants.
“By not going to Ogoni today (Thursday) because of threat from the NDA, our president has shown that he is actually afraid of the militants and the best thing to do in a situation like this is to dialogue with the militants so as to save Nigeria economy from imminent collapse.
“It also shows that the President’s ability to secure Nigeria and its people is suspect because if the President could succumb to threat from militants and abandon his official function for his deputy, ordinary Nigerians should seek help elsewhere.
“The President should therefore save Nigeria the agony of military misadventure in the Niger Delta by holding dialogue with the militants with a view to resolving their grievances.”Fayose also reiterated that “the Niger Delta region as at today is still the golden goose laying the golden egg on which all other regions are surviving,” saying “diversification as good as it sounds, takes time. We need to appreciate these regions as our only source of income.”