FORMER United States U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrington, says the imbalance in the structure of the Nigerian federation is inimical to its development.

Carrington, alongside some Niger Delta leaders, have also hinged sustainable peace in the oil-rich region on using the wealth of the area to develop it.

The renowned diplomat said the Nigerian Federal Government is "too powerful than the states. Here in the U.S., as powerful as the U.S. national government is, our states have immense powers that states in Nigeria can only dream of."

As America's envoy in the days of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Carrington openly romanced with the pro-democracy groups, which fought the government over its anti-democratic policies.

He said at a two-day summit organised by the Delta State government in New York that until the basic infrastructure needed to hasten the social and economic development of the Niger Delta were put in place, any other approach to the crisis was merely scratching it on the surface.

On the Nigerian structure, the former envoy said, "for instance, the oil that is drilled from American federal land is not the property of the Federal Government."

Governor of Delta State Emmanuel Uduaghan and Carrington, who led talks at the summit, which ended yesterday, said it was lamentable that Nigeria's potentials had remained untapped.

The summit was convened by the Delta State government to mobilise its indigenes in America to play critical roles in the development of the state.

Tagged: "Delta Diaspora Direct (D3)," the summit was attended by Prof. Joy Ogwu, Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), former Information Minister, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire, and Dr. Eloho Otobo, a senior UN official, among others.

Carrington who chaired the event, called for the tapping of the potentials of Nigerians in Diaspora by governments at home.

Although Nigeria has a federal constitution, the Federal Government is too powerful unlike in other federal democracies like the United States where states also have immense power, according to the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria.

Both Carrington and Uduaghan agreed that while there are problems with Nigeria's federalism and injustice with the way the oil and gas resources are being managed, the role of U.S.-based Nigerians towards developing the country is pivotal.

Carrington said: "Oil belongs to the people on whose land it is found," adding that there are even no drilling for oil allowed in U.S. government-owned property right now and that the American Federal Government only imposes taxes on owners of the land from where oil is drilled.

Citing Texas and Oklahoma states, two oil rich states in the U.S. to buttress his case, he noted that both states made their wealth from oil to the exclusion of the federal authorities.

He said the underlining source of discontent in the Niger Delta is "the failure of successive Federal Governments to use the oil wealth there to develop the area."

Without mentioning the amnesty deal of the Federal Government to militants in the area, Carrington said "peace cannot be sustained in the Niger Delta without confronting the underlining sources of unrest."

Carrington said there is no reason why states like Delta cannot pioneer social progress in Nigeria.

By working with the Nigerian Diaspora, he said much could be done to burnish the country's image. "So, then, Nigeria can become the great country that many of us have waited for it to become."

Continuing his lamentation of the Nigerian situation, Carrington said: "I have bemoaned the fact that the Nigerian potential remains untapped. Nigerians in the U.S. are excelling and there is no immigrant group here in America that can match Nigerian immigrants in accomplishments."

A recent American government report estimates that there are about one million Nigerians in America while over 25,000 U.S. citizens live and work in Nigeria.

Carrington said until the launch of the Delta initiative, no Nigerian government has not matched efforts to harness the resources in the country with the integration of Nigerians abroad.

He said it was a normal thing for nations to call upon their Diaspora for the development of the homeland, citing the Kennedys in Boston, noted for responding to the call of the Irish, even though their forbears left Ireland over a century ago.

Recalling his preparations before he assumed office in Nigeria in 1993, Carrington who attended the summit with his wife, Arese, a Nigerian from Edo State, said: "In 1993, when I went to the Library of Congress before assuming my post to find out about Nigeria - the curator brought out huge volumes." He said the scholarship he encountered in that quest was "impressive."

In his speech, Uduaghan said there can be "no peace without socio-economic and infrastructural development."

He added that all parties to the crisis including the federal and state governments, oil companies and communities, have played one role or the other "to complicate the problems on the ground and so we have our part to play in order to resolve it."

The governor assured the U.S.-based Nigerians that the state government has two boxes under which to deal with the crisis-development and the maintenance of law and order.

He said he would appoint Delta indigenes at the summit as mentors of school in their local councils to involve them in the development of the state.

Uduaghan said there is nobody who cannot contribute something to Nigeria's development, "at least try and visit the land."

He said the state had a mentoring scheme whereby prominent indigenes have a school linked to them.

"They are not required to bring money to build anything, but they must know the principal, the headmaster, communicating with the school, getting to the school, talking with the pupils and just making contact," the governor said.