Online respondents berate president’s directive on exploration in north

Following President Buhari’s directive to the NNPC, to intensify oil exploration in the northern part of the country, online readers have descended hard on the president.

They said, the directive not only negates the wise call to diversify the economy but also discriminatory in the sense that it was in favour of the north over other regions.

One of the online respondents Truth Forever, said “The above move by the presidency is a technical acceptance that Nigeria may not hold for long, hence the preparation of alternative economy for the north . 

"South East and South South have gotten their own oil and South West has its reservoir both in Lagos state and Ondo state respectively. If resources control is what is holding us up from splitting up, its good we intensify on it so that we may go our separate ways peacefully, because the theory of "Monkey dey work, Baboon dey chop" cannot last forever. No matter how long, Nigeria will split, unless we re-structure the whole structure”.

Another respondent, wrote, “Why can't they use the resources they are wasting in oil search there to tap into the massive solar power in the north?”.

Also reacting, yet another respondent wrote; “What if there are no oil found at the end of the day? It is a waste of NNPC manpower and resource. Must oil be found by force or should NNPC perform miracle?”. 

Nwabueze Lazarus also contributed; “The only serious agenda on the mind of President Buhari is how to make the north superior to the other regions. He has never forgotten to make the north and priority in all his speeches and his actions seem to have justified it. Why must oil explorations in the north be the most important priority of a government that has found it hard to even pay its workforce? Why is he more pro-north?”, he asked.

However, some others held a different view, saying that with the unrest in the Niger Delta region, the exploration of oil in other regions was a good move to keep the country afloat.

One of them,Simple Semmy  argued , “It's a progressive move anyway. If some tribes in Niger Delta don't allow any oil exploration to take place, the government can tap somewhere else to boost the economy. We just have to move on anyhow”.