OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY NATIONAL PRESIDENT, IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL ( IYC) WORLDWIDE

**IYC DEPUTY NATIONAL PRESIDENT’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Christened: Restoring The Broken Walls Of The Niger Delta And Ijaw nation, The Needed Vaccine To Inoculate The Nigerian State To A Stable And Prosperous Nation.

I wish all Nigerians, particularly; my kith and kin and bredren of Ijaw nation and Niger Delta, a prosperous new year deviod of pandemic, afflictions, poverty, viruses, lack and want. As we step into 2021 and deeper into the 21st Century, what inspired some former third world countries into major industrialized societies should propel Nigeria to achieve its full, grossly underutilized potentials in every sector of our national life.

The vastly untapped and virtually underutilized potentials of the proverbial giant of Africa are so enormous that, if we can look inwards, in every region and state – our rise as a nation to an industrilised society would be at our beck and call.

In all, the ancestral land of the people of the Niger Delta and Ijaw nation would continue to play its thankless role into the foreseeable future. Inspite of the quest by the developed societies to expand their drive for renewable and other sources of energy, oil and gas would continue to lead in human energy global consumption rate for some decades to come.

This will no doubt, continue to make the Niger Delta and Ijaw nation vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation, environmental degradation, predatory policies and despoilation. Whilst it a fact that, the NDDC being an interventionist agency was created to ameliorate the developmental challenges of the region. The NDDC has it is presently constitituted leaves a sour taste in the mouth of the people of region. This has led to virulent flank that has been howled at the Commission.

However, as a people our concern paramountly should be the development of the region. Therefore, any body that has found his way to the pilot seat of the region’s interventionist agency, under any guise, nomenclature or ethnic nationality within the region should be supported to move in, earthmoving equipments and developmental implements for the good of the region .The government should endeavour to insulate and isolate the management of the region’s interventionist agency from the vagaries of destructive politics.

On this score, the Presidency should channel more of its energy on the development of the region. The infrastructural and economic well-being of the region should be a major yardstick to measure the developmental goals of the Nigerian State.

As the honeypot of the nation, where the country derives most of the finances used for the recurrent and capital expenditure of the country. There is no gainsaying, the fact that the region should be richly nourished from the richness and wealth of the Nigerian State.

For the country to make any meaningful progress towards stability and prosperity, the Niger Delta region must be properly developed. In this vein, in order to fast-track the developmental needs of the people of the region, we should all embrace peace, tolerance and imbibe the virtue of being our brother’s keeper. There is no meaningful development that can take place in an atmosphere of strife, bitterness and rancour. Our major goal as leaders of the region is to ensure that our people benefit immensely from the wealth beneath their ancentral homes.

In conclusion

Without repairing and rebuilding the broken walls of the Niger Delta and Ijaw nation, the hugely sought – after vaccine towards inoculating the Nigerian State for progress, development and prosperous will continue to elude the nation. The Nigerian State should take conscious steps towards ensuring that the developmental needs of the people of the region are given prominent attention and consideration.

In order to ensure that the region does not continue in the vicious circle of underdevelopment this year, the government of president Muhammadu Buhari should put aside political considerations and calculations and ensure that the Board and Management of the NDDC is properly constituted; in line with the enabling law setting up the Commission. Multinationals and their subsidiaries, including; indigenous Oil and Gas companies should respect the Memorandum Of Understanding ( MOU’s) they freely entered into with host communities. Pragmatic steps should be taken to reorganize the Nigerian State to ensure that Niger Deltans start enjoying the wealth in their ancentral lands before the wind of alternative energy sources hits our shores.

Shalom!

Signed:

Saviour Olali
Deputy National President, IYC Worldwide