Ijaw nation berates FG over Kaiama Declaration

THE Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide on Tuesday said that the federal government had failed to attend to the critical demands of the Ijaws nation as pronounced in the Kaiama Declaration.

This view was expressed by the IYC President, Mr Oweilaemi Pereotubo at the 20th Anniversary ceremony of the Kaiama Declaration and the founding of the IYC.

Pereotubo said that none of the articles of the Kaiama Declaration had received desired attention since it was presented to the federal government twenty years ago.

He also lamented that successive government at the federal level had not treated the issues concerning the Ijaws and indeed the Niger Delta with seriousness.

“Federal government has not done well for either the IYC, the Ijaw people or the Niger Delta as a region and that is why we are still where we are today.

“We are talking of the Kaiama Declaration, which is 20 years today, some certain demands were made in that pamphlet.

“I cannot say I know any of those demands that have been met till date. You will just realise after opening that pamphlet that nothing has really happened till now,” he said.

Pereotubo said it was disgusting that the resources being used to sustain the economy comes from the Niger Delta and yet the people were being neglected.

“People have oil blocs, Marginal fields and Ijaw men and women are out of the equation. You send the military to guard facilities in the Niger Delta, but nothing for the people,” he said.

Also, Mr Timi Ogoriba, a founding father of the IYC who spoke to newsmen on the sideline said the celebration would provide the platform to do a reappraisal of the Ijaw struggle.

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Ogoriba, who is also one of the signatories of the Kaiama Declaration said the federal government had never done anything in Kaiama Declaration since twenty years ago

“The federal government has never done anything and that is why this 20th year anniversary is important.

” We want to take an appraisal of what we expected to have been done so that we can take new stands in actualising what we started,” he said.

The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the Anniversary Banner.