INC president calls for collaboration among ethnic group, advocate for restructuring
by Peregba Jerry
The new president of the Ijaw National Congress, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, has called on other ethnic groups, especially in the southern region of Nigeria to collaborate and work in one accord to support the call for a peaceful, prosperous and equitable society.
Prof. Okaba made the call shortly after been sworn-in as the INC president and the National Executives of the INC at the Ijaw House in Yenagoa.
The INC president also backed the pronouncement by the southern governors forum for the prohibition of open grazing in the region. He reiterated the call for President Buhari to urgently address the escalating insecurity situation, noting that Nigeria is moving towards disintegration.
His words, “It suffices to reiterate that from the social to mainstream media and intelligence report, it is obvious that Nigeria is at a edge, if the prevailing precarious situation is not properly handled. This country might disintegrate into political oblivion.”
“The INC lends its voice to support earlier calls from different ethnic nationalities in the country for Mr. President (Buhari) to fix this country. Mr. President should as a matter of urgency and dispassionately address the problems of insecurity, infrastructural decay and give equal sense of belonging to all citizens in this country, irrespective of class and order.”
He also called for immediate restructuring which will give room for fiscal federalism and resource control, adding that this will guarantee the continues commitment to the Nigerian project.
He said, “The INC presents the following demands to the federal government of Nigeria as guaranteed to our continuous commitment to the Nigerian project:
“Immediate restructuring, fiscal federalism and resource control in accordance to the principles laid down by our founding fathers, immediate withdrawal of the water resources bill and the repel of other nefarious and obnoxious resource bills that has kept the Ijaw people as perpetual slaves in this country.
“The immediate remediation of our massively polluted and endangered environment and enforcement and adherence to international environmental best practices. The immediate inauguration of of a substantive board of the NDDC with a Bayelsan as managing director and a Deltan as Chairman of the board.
“Allocate operational licenses for magical oil refineries to Ijaw people and promote ownership of modular refineries by Ijaw people. Allocate at least 10% of all oil and gas revenue to Host Communities (HOSTCOM) as demanded by the HOSTCOM. Create at least two additional states and local government areas in Ijaw land, particularly Bayelsa state. Also, called on the federal government to stop all negative actions by Edo state government and Akwa Ibom state government intended to denied our kids and kin’s ownership of their God given land.”
