Posted by From MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja on
A coalition of South-South socio-political and youth organisations under the aegis of the Coastal Mandate (CM]) has declared the ongoing dialogue between the region and the Northern Union over the 2007 presidency as an exercise in futility
…As Ijaws slam Edwin Clark
A coalition of South-South socio-political and youth organisations under the aegis of the Coastal Mandate (CM]) has declared the ongoing dialogue between the region and the Northern Union over the 2007 presidency as an exercise in futility, just as the Ijaws dismissed former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark, as not having their mandate to enter into negotiations with the Dr. Olusola Saraki-led northern body.
At a press conference Wednesday, in Abuja , the coalition said the coastal states in the South-South region do not need the leadership of the Saraki/Clark generation to survive and achieve its aspirations in the present dispensation.
President General of the Coastal Mandate and grand patron of Ijaw Youths Congress (IYC), Prince Collins Eselemo, who addressed newsmen, said the South-South would not subscribe to playing second fiddle, but is determined and totally committed to producing the next president.
'Chief E.K. Clark is not Ijaw national leader as he claims, and he is a politician schooled in the art of double-speak. When President Olusegun Obasanjo genuinely invited the Ijaws for the Niger Delta stakeholders forum in Abuja, Clark opposed it, saying the Ijaws will not attend unless they are invited separately. After the conference, he turned round and went to see the president through the back door," Eselemo alleged.
He said the Coastal Mandate Coalition takes exception to the idea of going to the north to negotiate for political power in 2007, as the South-South has enough credible candidates for the presidency.
Said he: 'The idea of going to the North to say please, lets talk so that you give us the vice presidential slot, is unacceptable to us. The South-South has presidential materials.If Saraki and Clark are claiming to be leaders of the Northern Union and the Ijaw nationality, and are negotiating over 2007, that is their own business. The Ijaws have a common and widely accepted body known as the Ijaw National Congress and led by Professor Kimse Okoko, and so the Ijaws would not accept anything coming from outside that body."
While commending the present administration, for initiating moves towards redressing the over 40 years neglect of the Niger Delta region, the coalition urged President Obasanjo to ensure that corrupt politicians who had looted the nation's treasury, do not find their way back to power in the forthcoming polls.
'Obasanjo should cut off all corrupt politicians who want to come back to loot our money. He should also ensure the security of lives and properties between now and his exit from office, and that will be the greatest legacy for him," the coalition emphasized.
Commenting on the recent call by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) on President Obasanjo to relieve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, of his appointment, the coalition's president general condemned the bar for the action, saying it has no moral authority to ask for Ribadu's removal.
He said rather than calling for Ribadu's head, the anti-graft czar should be commended for the tough battle he is fighting. 'The NBA cannot pass judgement on Nuhu Ribadu. It knows the procedures to take legally. When they accuse him of being selective and haunting opponents of the government, what of Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana, Rimi, and others who are strong critics of Obasanjo. Why has he not arrested them," he querried, adding that Ribadu must remain in office.
Eselemo warned that the rising spate of hostage taking in the Niger Delta will continue because even the limited resources provided by the Federal Government through such agencies as the NDDC, Ecological Fund, and the 13 percent Derivation Fund, are not being properly used for the development of the area, just as soldiers deployed to the region to maintain law and order, have turned round to become part of the security problem by collaborating with the militant youths in perpetrating economic sabotage.
Lamenting that hostage taking, vandalization of petroleum pipelines, and illegal bunkering, have not moved the Ijaws forward, Eselemo accused some Ijaw leaders of sustaining the crises for their personal interests.