IYC Wants Regional Approach To Niger Delta Problems

National Spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Ebilade Ekerefe has advised stakeholders from the Niger Delta region to adopt new strategies to tackle the persistent reluctance of the Federal Government to respond to their agitations.
According to Ekerefe, the region must do away with obsolete strategies and adopt the new era of strategic alliances with other ethnic nationalities and intellectuals in an aggressive engagement with the federal government for accelerated development of the region.
Speaking recently in Yenagoa at a colloquium to mark his 36th birthday and the unveiling of his book, “Chronicle of Ebilade Ekerefe, The Journey So Far,” he maintained that the Ijaw nation and other stakeholders from the region cannot continue to apply outdated approaches to agitation and expect to achieve the desired result in an evolving world.
The IYC spokesman who used the opportunity to declare interest in the presidency of the ninth council of the IYC, maintained that the new age requires new strategies.
“We are currently in a jet age and we must prepare an army of young, vibrant and intellectually mobile Ijaw youths to drive home our demands.
“The IYC has come of age to look inward and come up with a renewed strategy to confront the myriad of challenges that affect us as a people, if we must get it right,” he stated.
Ekefere attributed the successes recorded by the IYC to thousands of youths, elders, and state governors of the region particularly, the Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri who, he said had supported and encouraged him to speak out against injustice and the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to commit to the demands of the Niger Delta people.
He said the administration of President Buhari was unfair to the region in the past eight years.
He pointed out that the Buhari government unfairly treated the Niger Delta region and its peoples despite the huge contributions of the region to the economy of the nation.