Onyedi Gabriel, Port Harcourt
Ijaw leaders have decried the hard times and worsening conditions in their homestead despite various interventions and existence of key associations claiming to be championing the cause of the people .
The leaders, who met in Port Harcourt under the auspices of Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta, said they were worse off because major pressure groups they relied on failed them.
One of the Conveners of MOSIEND, Kennedy Tonjo-West, regretted that Ijawland was still battling age-long foundational problems of insecurity, severe poverty, environmental degradation and high level unemployment.
He said pressure groups established by founding fathers to steer the ship of the Ijaw away from the basic developmental issues had been hijacked by politicians and reduced to toothless bulldogs.
West said other Ijaw associations such as the Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress (NDYCPP), Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and many Niger Delta freedom fighters had withdrawn their membership of Ijaw foundational groups.
He said MOSIEND was quickly rising to assume responsibility for Ijaw struggles for resource control and self-determinism and to become a major driving force for development in Ijaw nation.
He said, “Today, the Ijaw communities are experiencing very hard and unpleasant situation. The Ijaw communities are plagued with insecurity, severe poverty, environmental degradation, malnutrition, unemployment unimaginable diseases due to exploitation and exploration of our land.
“Following government infiltration and political hijack, the Ijaw nation has been voiceless having no teeth to bite. Our sons and daughters hardly get employed by federal agencies and oil multinationals. Most employments by the multinationals are usually done in Lagos and Abuja.
“Multinationals have gradually removed their headquarters from the Niger Delta, especially Rivers and Bayelsa states. Our Ijaw indigenous contractors are out of business. Recently, we are witnessing companies adopting many tactics to evade their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR)”.
Also speaking, MOSIEND’s incoming Eastern Zonal Chairman, Boma Dagogo, said group would change the current narrative, adding that Ijaw nation was no longer moving in the right direction.
He insisted that politicians hijacked the Ijaw struggle, enriching themselves without reasonable efforts to develop the Ijaw communities..