By David Maxwell
The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has called on communities across the South-South geopolitical zone to embrace the New Year as a fresh opportunity to consolidate peace and accelerate development in the region.
In a New Year message signed by its National Chairman, Ambassador Dr Godknows Boladei Igali, OON, PANDEF expressed gratitude to God for seeing the Niger Delta through 2025 and commended the resilience of its people amid lingering socio-economic challenges.
The group extended warm felicitations to political leaders, traditional rulers, faith leaders and development agencies, especially the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the South-South Development Commission, SSDC, for their roles in supporting stability and progress across the region.
According to PANDEF, 2026 represents a defining moment for the Niger Delta to strengthen its position as a driver of national development, while ensuring that growth translates into tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary citizens.
The forum emphasised the need to prioritise healthcare and education, empower women and youths, fast-track infrastructural development and urgently address environmental degradation caused by decades of oil pollution.
“PANDEF recognises that the New Year marks another significant epoch for the Niger Delta, one that presents renewed opportunities to consolidate and sustain our leading role as a zone of transformative progress within the country.
“This progress must continue to reflect in the improved welfare of our people, particularly in healthcare and education, the empowerment of women and youth, accelerated physical and infrastructural development, and the long-overdue remediation of our environment after decades of oil pollution,” the statement read.
Reflecting on recent developments, PANDEF noted that much of the region, spanning Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta and Edo states, has enjoyed relative peace and improved security. It also welcomed the return to stability in Rivers State, saying the period of emergency rule has ended and the state is now recording “unprecedented progress”.
The forum stressed that sustaining peace remains critical to unlocking greater social and economic advancement, urging stakeholders to work collectively to promptly address emerging threats to security.
“As we move forward, our faith in God Almighty, whose benevolence has placed our region as a leading contributor to the national economy for decades, must remain resolute,” the statement said, quoting Psalms 60:12 to underscore its message of hope and resilience.
PANDEF concluded by wishing the people of the Niger Delta, the South-south geopolitical region, and Nigerians at large a peaceful and prosperous New Year, expressing optimism that 2026 would usher in a “new dawn of peace and development” for the oil-rich region.
