Prof Benjamin Okaba, the President of Ijaw National Congress (INC) has spoken on activities of non-state actors in the Niger Delta region, the crisis in Ijaw Youth Council, oil theft in the region and efforts of INC to restore peace, among other issues,

Speaking on the effect of growing non-state actors on our country in line with the level of insecurity in Nigeria, he said, “In the first place, it tells you that the formal security architecture of this country has been compromised. Ordinarily, what these non-state actors seem to be doing is the responsibility of the police, military and other agencies that are empowered to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. But talking about the implications, definitely, we have to talk about community policing, but this is not the direction it should take.

“In terms of some kind of stop-gap approach to dealing with the immediate issues, I don’t think they should be allowed to continue for too long. They should be regulated or stopped entirely. Yes, some are pledging loyalty to the Federal Government but we have not seen what the responses are from the Federal Government to the extent of either encouraging or discouraging these outfits. I think the government should take a stand on these issues if not we are heading into the proliferation of so many militia bodies and that is not good enough for this country,” he said.

And on the latest crisis rocking the Ijaw Youth Council and its challenges, he explained that “as you know, Ijaw Youth Council is a product collective consciousness of the Ijaw people to have a youth organisation properly coordinated to articulate their aspirations concerning the self-determination drive of the Ijaw Nation. Precisely on December 11, 1998, over 5,000 Ijaw youths gathered at the community called Kaiama, representing over 40 clans coming from several clubs and they collapse all their structures and had what they called the Kaiama Declaration.

“And there, the IYC was formed as a youth body of the Ijaw Nation. We have had successive succession in the past, but on one or two occasions, we have had issues with electing the leadership. Talking particularly about the last election, the truth is that IYC has one exco and there are no factions and that is the exco led by Jonathan Lokpobiri. The build-up to the election actually demonstrated some serious tensions moments but at the end of the day, the critical stakeholders met and agreed first and foremost to harmonize the composite committee. In fact, I had the privilege of chairing about three meetings to work out a creditable and transparent transition process.

“Decisions were taken in those meetings that cumulated in the parliament of the IYC putting up a committee that was sworn in by the immediate past president of IYC. The committee went to work, there were issues and they came back but after meeting with the governor of Bayelsa State, who encouraged them to work as a team and play out the spirit of sportsmanship with themselves as contestants and with the delegates, they had a non-elective convention on July 19 that started from the early hours of the day to late hours,: he emphasised. (Story adapted from New Telegraph)

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