Dialogue with militants only way to solve Niger Delta issues- OPEC Sec Gen

The new Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Countries (OPEC), Mohammed Barkindo, Tuesday said the only way to solve the renewed agitation in the Niger Delta region is the carrot and stick option.

Barkindo endorsed efforts by the Federal Government to dialogue with the militants in the region adding that it was beginning to yield results.

The Federal Government had said it has not closed avenues for negotiations with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group so that they can stop the bombing of oil installations in the country. The group had given the FG some conditions before proceeding to the dialogue table.

Speaking with journalists at the Presidential Villa, Barkindo who emerged as the Secretary General of the OPEC noted that already the dialogue was beginning to yield positive results.

“For me based on my own experience here, the option of carrot and stick ‎as they call it I think is the way forward.

“Government I understand are negotiating, discussing and we are beginning to see positive results. So I don’t think it will be proper to preempt this discussions that are being handled by Dr. Kachukwu. But I remain confident that through this negotiations, stable and permanent solutions will be found to this problem ‎because the Niger Delta region is a very important part of our country and whatever we can do to address the challenges of development I think is the way forward.

I have been told that production is beginning to rise again, so for us in OPEC this is the first thing we look at, how much is a member country is producing. When we saw that production was falling in Nigeria as a result of recent challenges, the international community, the market also took note of that. But now I think things are beginning to come back to nomalcy and I have seen some of your reports that are also very positive” he said in response to how Nigeria can solve the Niger Delta crisis.

Speaking on the crisis in the oil sector across member countries , he said to overcome the challenges at the organisational level, ministers and government well as governors and national representatives, will need to be united.

For Nigeria, the reforms already embarked upon in the oil and gas and power sector, ‎must be sustained as there is no alternative to these reforms. “The bane in the past has been lack of continuity of policies and programmes. Energy reforms the world over normally take some time to reach their targets” he said.

He used the opportunity to thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu for their support as he rode on the integrity of the President.

Seven countries including ‎Nigeria competed and out of the seven, four of them are actually founding members of OPEC.