Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa, a professor emeritus of history, has become the first person to sign the charter for the Niger Delta on the control of resources and self-determination.
This was announced by the Congress of Niger Delta (NDC) in an update on Friday.
Alagoa, 88, initiated the signature of the letter on Thursday at the country house in NEmb, State of Bayelsa.
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“The charter, among others, states the conditions to be met by Nigeria for the continued participation of the region’s nationalities in the Nigerian project”, it read.
The elder was an archivist in the national archives of 1959 to 1962 and a professor of African History at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), 1965 – 1967.
In 1967, Alagoa became a member of the main investigation at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan (UI).
The letter was adopted as a working document after the October 8 conference at the Ijaw House Complex in Yenegoa.
The NDC is demanding that oil and other Natural Resources from South-South be controlled by people.
Currently, the region receives only a 13 percent derivation fund from the Federation Audit Assignment Committee (FAAC).
Nigerians have been condemning the treatment of communities that produce oil that finances the part of the country’s spending lion.
The locals live in poverty due to decades of government negligence and severe environmental degradation by oil exploration activities.
The NDC, a coalition of ethnic groups and nationalities, says that the letter will put the foundation for the processes that will birth “a new future”.
