… says passed 3% PIB unfair, insensitive
ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
The Ijaw National Congress on Friday inaugurated a 34-member Central Planning Committee and other committees to midwife the forthcoming All Ijaw Summit scheduled for August 31.
The main theme of the one-day summit is,’The State of the Nigerian Nation and the Ijaw Question’. The summit has sub-themes such as ‘Redefining the Nigerian State and the Ijaw People’, ‘The Imperatives of Ijaw Quest for Self-Determination: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ and ‘Reforms in Ijaw National Polity: The Need for Self-Introspection.’
President, INC, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, who inaugurated the committees at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa said the one-day summit would take place in the Bayelsa State capital.
Okaba, a Professor of Sociology at the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, announced Rear Admiral Wonyengidinikpete Yanga (rtd) as the chairman of the central working committee while the national secretary of INC, Ebipamowei Wodu, will serve as secretary with the President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Peter Igbifa, as member, among others.
He said the summit would “provide an opportunity for a review of the Ijaw position in the current Nigerian state and create a platform to articulate a common position on the future of the Ijaw nation.”
Okaba noted that the three per cent allocated for host communities in the passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the rumoured re-presentation of the obnoxious National Water Resources Bill at the National Assembly, among other issues, were pointers to the Federal Government’s insensitivity to the plight of Ijaw people.
He, therefore, said the meeting became necessary after an assessment of the prevailing circumstances in the country and the need to galvanise Ijaw leaders and stakeholders to speak with one voice concerning issues of interest to the Ijaw nation.
Okaba, who gave the committees 12-point terms of reference, said: “The summit shall be a convocation of all Ijaws home and abroad to redefine the Ijaw cause.
“The summit shall be a one-day summit where papers shall be presented on the theme and sub-themes above, then a declaration of the Ijaw position derived from the summit resolutions shall be made.”
He called on all Ijaw sons and daughters to take the summit seriously and contribute their own quota to ensure its success and the realisation of the objectives.