Fanny Binaebi Aims For First IYC Female President

Comrade Peremoboere Fanny Binaebi, the current Treasurer of Ijaw Youth Council has thrown her hatchet into the ring as she has declared to contest for the President of Ijaw national Council in the forthcoming national elections.
And if she wins, Binaebi will become the first ever female President of the IYC.
The council has been dominated by men since it was founded about three decades ago. Female leadership in Ijaw communities is however not strange. Ijaw women have been known through ages to provide leadership both at home and in the community.
But modern leadership structures have tended to sideline women in leadership. So, Binaebi’s declaration carries a deeper emotional message about the role of Ijaw women in the survival and growth of riverine communities.
“From the creeks of the Niger Delta where women paddle canoes at dawn to support their families, to the marketplaces where they sustain local economies, Ijaw women have long been silent pillars of strength behind the region’s struggles and resilience,” said Gbaramatu Voice about the role of women in leadership in Ijaw communities.
And now Binaebi says the time has come for those voices to move from the background into leadership.
Her vision speaks to the realities faced by many young people in the Niger Delta, environmental degradation, unemployment, and limited participation in the oil and gas industry operating on their ancestral lands.
Beyond agitation, she believes the next phase of the Ijaw struggle must involve strategic engagement, technological advancement, economic inclusion and policy influence.
Her proposals include youth technology hubs across Ijaw communities, stronger clan participation within the council, environmental accountability for oil pollution, and reconciliation among factions within the IYC.
For many observers, her declaration signals a moment of reflection within the Ijaw nation, a reminder that the struggle for justice and development may require both the strength of warriors and the resilience of mothers.
She summarized her mission in her widely circulated declaration speech as follws:
“Great youths of Ijaw nation, beautiful daughters/mothers of Ijaw nation, elders and well respected stakeholders today I come before you not just as an aspirant but as a daughter of our dearest “Izon land”.
“I stand on the shoulders of the great Ijaw women, who for generations have been the silent pillars of our survival, the fishers who navigate the midnight tides, the traders who connect our riverine economies, and the mothers who birthed the giants of our struggle.
“Today on this sacred soil of our ancestors, from the great River Nun to the Escravos, from the edges of Akwa Ibom to the banks of Ondo, it is the spirit of our dear Izon land that has called me to step forward where no woman has dared to tread before,.
“For decades our people have laid the golden eggs. Yet we’re left with the empty shells of environmental degradation and systematic marginalization.
“Our mangroves which were once the nurseries of our livelihood are choked by oil. Our youths, the most resilient on this continent are sidelined from the very oil and gas industry that breathes on our ancestral lands.
“The Ijaw man and woman are people of the water. Our culture is one of fluidity and also of incredible strength. We’re not a people who beg for crumbs. We’re a nation that demands equity.
“As your President I will not only speak for the angry boys in the creeks, but also for the forgotten girls with very little or no hopes of the future, the unemployed graduates in our cities and the struggling families in our fishing camps
“They say the seat of the IYC Presidency is a seat for the “strong”. I ask who is stronger than the Ijaw woman who paddles against the current to feed her kin? Who is more courageous than the woman who stood at the front lines when our lands were invaded?”
“My candidacy is not a challenge to our men. It is a completion of our struggle for Ijaw nation to fly. It must use both wings.
“To lead the IYC in this new era, we need more than just agitations. We need strategic engagement, intellectual warfare and economic inclusion. We must move from the trenches of protest to the boardroom of policy making.”