The Isoko Monitoring Group (IMG) has frowned at what it described as the attitude of the Ijaw nation towards anything that concerned the Niger Delta región.
It also condemned a recent protest led by Comrade Roland Oweilaemi, the President of Ijaw Youths, asking for the termination of the tenure of the current board of the Niger Delta Development Commission,NDDC.
The IMG President, Comrade Sebastine Agbefe, said this in a chat with the newsmen yesterday in Warri.
”We condemn the recent protest which was led by Comrade Roland Oweilaemi, the President of Ijaw Youths, asking for the termination of the tenure of the current board of the NDDC, perhaps because for the first time since over 17 years of the existence of the NDDC, an Ijaw man is neither the Chairman, MD, EDP nor EDFA.
“The Ijaw consider this situation an anathema for other ‘second class’ ethnic groups in the Niger-Delta to be occupying such executive positions. “The Ijaw should not forget that Timi Alaibe, Pastor PZ Aginighan, Air Vice Marshal Larry Koinya (retd.), Dr. Tarila Tebepah, Mr. Lambert Komboye are Ijaws who at one time or the other held executive /chairmanship positions in the board of the NDDC.
“Until the Ijaws learn to live and let live and shelve this attitude and tendency to display a landlord complex over other ethnic groups in Niger delta, they may find themselves contending with the rest ethnic groups in the region.
“We suspect that the ijwa leaders’ impatience and wrong sense of entitlement to the position of the MD must have been born out of misinterpretation of the section in the NDDC which stipulates that the office of the chairman not the office the MD, be rotated amongst the member states of the commission in alphabetical order.
“We strongly appeal to the Ijwa leaders to call off their attack dogs from the street and put their unquenchable, if not impatient, appetite for the position of the MD of the NDDC to check until the tenure of this board comes to an end in 2020, a position the presidency and the Senate have already decided upon.
“At the expiration of the tenure of this board in 2020, should the President decide to reappoint them for a second tenure, the IMG will support Mr President’s decision depending on the performance of the current board between now and 2020. However, should Mr. President decide to appoint an entirely new board, we know that based on the NDDC Act, the next chairman of the board will come from Delta State.
“The next chairman will not just come from anywhere in delta state but must come from the isoko nation. Since the inception of the Commission, the Ijaw’s (PZ Aginighan, and Lambert Komboye), ITsekiri’s(Tuoyor Omatsuli ) and Urhobo’s (Godwin Omene, Emmanuel Aguariavwodo , Samuel Adjogbe)have produced persons occupying executive positions in the board. Also in the defunct OMPADEC, the predecessor of the NDDC, the Ndokwa nation produced Prof. Eric Opia as the Sole Administrator of the Commission” he added.
