Trainees under the Social-Economic Empowerment for Vulnerable Women project supported by NACA and MDGs during their graduation in Abuja last Saturday.
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the Federal Character principle is reflected in all his appointments.
The Secretary General of the council, Engr. Bristol Emmanuel Alagbariya, said this during the Rivers Ijaw Youth Summit in Port Harcourt.
Alagbariya also expressed readiness of the youth of Ijaw extraction, irrespective of state of origin, to work with the new administration to ensure peace in the Niger Delta.
He said that, since the Niger Delta was the biggest contributor to the nation’s economy, people from the region must enjoy the benefits of appointments by the new administration in the country.
The IYC Secretary General said that, the programme was to seek for ways of addressing the Niger Delta question as well as fashion out ways of advancing the Niger Delta struggle.
Speaking on “the Willinks Commission: 58 years after”, Alagbariya regretted that the recommendations as contained in the commission’s report were yet to be fully addressed by successive Nigerian governments, adding that the awards given to heroes of the Niger Delta struggle such as, late Isaac Adaka Boro, Chief Harold Dappa Biriye, Chief U.O. Ekeneokot, Dr. I.J. Fiberesima and Chief P.G. Warmate, among others, were to sustain their legacies.
Meanwhile, a university lecturer and social crusader, Dr. Sofiri Joab-Peterside has berated successive Nigerian governments over the failure to accord special developmental status to the Niger Delta in line with the Willinks Commission recommendations.
Peterside told newsmen during the Rivers Ijaw youth Summit in Port Harcourt, that the former Niger Delta Development Board created based on the Commission’s report has become moribund, adding that, the balkanization of the region into several states has not helped the cause of development of the region.
He described the occasion as memorable, stressing that things have been done the way they ought not to be, and stressed the need for the Ijaws in the various states of the Niger Delta to negotiate with their neighbours on issue of governance.
Highlights of the event, which has the theme: “The Niger Delta struggle”, was the conferment of Special Heroes Awards on late Major Isaac Adaka Boro, Chief Harold Dappa Biriye, Dr. I.J. Fiberesima, Chief U.O. Ekeneokot, and Chief P.G. Warmate, amongst others.