By BANNERNEWS Reporter, Calabar
Bayelsa State Governor and Chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum, Senator Douye Diri, has called on the region to position itself as Nigeria’s gas-industrial hub, West Africa’s maritime gateway and the country’s leading blue-economy zone.
Diri made the call in Calabar on Monday while opening a meeting of governors of the six South-South states, where he challenged the region to move beyond meetings and communiqués to concrete implementation of decisions that would drive development.
“We cannot afford to remain a region of meetings and communiqués,” Diri said, stressing that the Forum’s decisions must produce “measurable progress.”
The Bayelsa governor said the region, despite its enormous contribution to Nigeria’s economy, could no longer afford fragmented approaches to challenges that cut across state boundaries.
He identified infrastructure, transportation, security, environmental remediation and economic integration as areas requiring coordinated regional action, stressing that connectivity remained critical to unlocking the South-South’s economic potential.
Diri called for accelerated development of road, rail, air and maritime infrastructure, including the East-West Road, Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and regional rail networks.
He also called for the region to leverage its oil and gas resources for industrial development and value addition rather than continue to depend largely on the export of raw resources.
On the environment, Diri said the South-South could not continue to bear the ecological consequences of activities that generate enormous wealth for the country.
“We cannot continue to produce the wealth while communities remain surrounded by environmental devastation,” he said, advocating expanded environmental remediation across the Niger Delta.
The governors consequently linked economic development with security and environmental sustainability, calling for stronger intelligence-sharing and coordinated security operations to protect communities, oil and gas assets, waterways and economic corridors across the six states.
Also speaking, Cross River State Governor and Vice Chairman of the Forum, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, said the region’s ability to secure meaningful development depended on the capacity of its states to speak and act collectively.
“We must come together as a people; we must cooperate, and we must ensure that our voice is heard and respected,” Otu said.
He said the South-South had the resources to become one of Nigeria’s strongest economic blocs if the states could overcome fragmentation and develop a common regional framework.
Otu called for a unified position on fiscal equity, particularly Value Added Tax, oil and gas revenues and the 13 per cent derivation benchmark.
He also sought the Forum’s support for Cross River’s campaign to regain its oil-producing status, describing it as part of the state’s quest for greater economic opportunities.
On infrastructure, Otu proposed a regional economic corridor linking the Bakassi Deep Seaport in Calabar with the East-West Road and ports in Bayelsa and Delta states.
He further advocated stronger integration of the region’s agricultural economies, urging the governors to move beyond raw resource exploitation to value addition, industrial processing and job creation, particularly in cassava production, processing and ethanol development.
Earlier, PANDEF National Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, advocated the establishment of a regional investment fund to mobilise capital for projects that transcend individual state boundaries.
Igali also urged the governors to place young people at the centre of the region’s economic transformation.
The Forum resolved to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027 and seek direct engagement with him on the region’s development priorities.
