In a move that barely masked a threat of return to militancy, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has vowed to respond to President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss to General Muhammadu Buhari in the March 28 presidential election.
That is the underlining message in a statement issued on Friday.
The group’s president, Udengs Eradiri, had earlier commended Jonathan for accepting defeat and promised not to resort to attacking pipeline and oil infrastructure.
But in a move that oozes of anger and undisguised hostility, spokesperson for the group, Eric Omare, said they are not satisfied with the result of the polls and will seek a new direction for the struggle for resource control.
“The IYC has resolved to call for a National Congress of all Ijaw Youths on Sunday, the 5th of April, 2015 at Tuomo Community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State where all the Ijaw Youths of the Niger-Delta region would meet to review the outcome of the Presidential elections,” the statement began.
“IYC will take a position and determine the next direction of our struggle for self-determination and resource control as enshrined in the historic Kaiama Declaration.
“We call on all Ijaw Youths to be alert and ready to heed the call to the service of the Ijaw nation at this crucial time of our history and struggle for survival in the Nigerian state in the face of the grand conspiracy between the north and a section of the south west to continue to suppress and exploit the resource of the Ijaw nation.
“We recall that when President Jonathan, an Ijaw and from the South South won an internationally acclaimed free, fair and credible election in 2011, General Buhari and his people never at any time congratulated or supported President Jonathan.
“Instead they killed hundreds of innocent Nigerians and fought President Jonathan from the day he became the Acting President of Nigeria in 2010 until the north conspired with a section of the south west to take over the Presidency from President Jonathan and the minorities of the south-south in an election fraught with irregularities.
“It is also significant to note that none of the northern socio-cultural groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and others congratulated or supported the administration of President Jonathan.
“Northerners created Boko Haram and blamed it on President Jonathan deliberately to incite the northern populace against President Jonathan and make him unpopular in the 2015 election so as to take back power in a grand conspiracy with a section of the south west.
“Therefore, the April 5, 2015 meeting of all Ijaw youths would determine the position of the Ijaw Youths on the 2015 Presidential election and our next line of action,” Omare said.
The Kaima Declaration of 1998 demanded, among other things, that oil companies should stop all exploration and exploitation activities in the Ijaw area, self government and resource control for the Ijaw people and a federation of a federation of ethnic nationalities.
It gave birth to the formation of IYC.
