Rights activist, Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has challenged governors to prioritise development of the Niger Delta, warning that their frivolous appointments are institutionalising poverty in the oil-rich region. At a press conference in Lagos, Tuesday, the Igba of Warri Kingdom, while acknowledging the deplorable state of things in the country, submitted that Nigeria must be reinvented to work.

She said:“The bottom line is that we have this rottenness that has eaten deep into our polity.” Lori-Ogbebor said the council chairmen and others running the show at the grassroots lack grasp of leadership as the governors who work with them. She stated: “The whole country must make the Niger Delta for the good of Nigeria. South South governors must be painstaking in addressing developmental challenges of the area with available resources. Governors must think out of the box to make things happen in the states as productivity of the nation is with states. Anything short of this would lead to Nigeria’s collapse. The person to lead should be the one with defined principles. That man must be the one that has holistic idea of moving the country forward. We must profile him vis-a-vis his beginning, family background and orientation of family members in relation to inculcation of core values.”

She urged National Orientation Agency (NOA) to revive Nigeria’s value system for the emergence of total leaders, stating: “The problem we have today is that our people are imitating the whites. Our girls even go as far as reading foreign magazines to get indoctrinated”.