By Donald Ojogo Politics Editor, Abuja
The crisis of confidence between President Goodluck Jonathan and his kinsmen, the Ijaw ethnic nationality, appears to have taken a new dimension as the leadership of the umbrella body of the president’s kinsmen, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), said it is boycotting a mediation parley initiated by a presidential aide.
The meeting, which is scheduled to hold today in Lagos, is coming on the heels of the outburst of some prominent Ijaw leaders who have expressed disappointment over the dismal performance of the Jonathan administration as regards the welfare and developmental challenges of the region.
Curiously, the INC leadership as well as other prominent Ijaw leaders have claimed ignorance of the meeting and have decided to stay away from it on the ground that the proposed meeting, supposedly brokered by the presidential aide, was “self-serving.”
But the Presidency has described the proposed Lagos meeting as a good one, saying the right to meet is not reserved in the INC.
All the same, the presidential aide (names withheld) had reportedly met with one of his colleagues in the Presidency to explore means of dousing the storm that had gathered against the president from his kinsmen over alleged non-performance and complacence to the plight of the Niger Delta region.
As a prelude to today’s Lagos meeting, the presidential aide had reportedly met with the leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) on Wednesday in Abuja, but a similar one fixed for Thursday with the leadership of the INC was shunned by the body, which alleged that President Jonathan’s attitude to the Ijaw ethnic nationality “shows hatred and disdain.”
President of the IYC, Mieabiye Kuromiema, confirmed the Wednesday meeting with the presidential aide in Abuja.
INC President, Chief Joshua Benaimesia, also confirmed being invited to the Thursday meeting with the presidential aide but declined, saying the issues at stake were too vital and important for anyone apart from Jonathan to address.
Benaimesia had, penultimate week, slammed Jonathan for not doing enough for the Niger Delta, even as he warned the president not to toy with the idea of re-contesting the 2015 presidential election.
He said: “I have no regrets whatsoever for the position I have held on the matter at stake. It is not an individual affair as such; no one should think he loves the president more than those of us who have decided to come to the open to correct him.
“As president of the INC, the entire Ijaw ethnic nationality is watching me and the leadership of the INC; whatever we say today means a lot tomorrow, and whatever we refuse to say that will hunt us tomorrow we must try to say.
“I was invited to a meeting in Abuja on Thursday but I told the convener of the meeting that the issues for which he was calling me to the meeting were too big for him to handle, so I refused to go to Abuja for the meeting; although I learnt he held a similar one with the IYC.
“The truth is that all actions and inactions of the president show he hates the Ijaw people; I will say this everywhere until he changes his mien and attitude towards the Ijaws, whose blood and sweat made him what he is today.
“Today, what we witness is people saying the Ijaws are in power, they are in government; I make bold to say that those in power and government are not Ijaw people, they are Ogbia people because they have shown, including the president, that they do not like the Ijaws at all.
“How does one explain to the world that, apart from the two states of Torube and Oil Rivers we are pursuing for the Ijaws in Niger Delta, Bayelsa is also pursuing another agenda of two additional states? Who is deceiving who? It is the proverb of the hand of the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau.
“Until the president addresses the situation of the Niger Delta and correct certain things, we will not give our support to him because he has failed us as a people; and I can tell you that so many Ijaw leaders, former ministers and former lawmakers both at the federal and state levels have called to inquire about the meeting; and their view is that, as long as the INC leadership is not involved, they will stay away.”
Benaimesia said he would not attend the Lagos meeting summoned by the presidential aide because he was not invited.
“I won’t attend because I was not invited, and that shows the kind of leadership we are breeding in Ijawland. As far as INC is concerned, we are not aware of any such meeting,” he said further added.
A former senator from Bayelsa State, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, rather described the Lagos meeting as “one called for personal aggrandizement by those behind it because the issues are beyond those calling those meetings. Why can’t the president meet one on one with his kinsmen? he queried.
Nonetheless, Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak, said today’s Lagos meeting is in good direction.
“I think some people are missing the point; the president has not told anybody he wants to run as president again in 2015. So for people to hang on that and think they can ambush him is out of it. If the INC says otherwise about their son, there are several other bodies and prominent sons and daughters of Ijawland that can also say what they want.
“Even though the Presidency has no hand in the said meeting, I think it is in good direction and coming at a time we need to understand that Mr. President is not an Ijaw president but that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Gulak told Sunday Independent on telephone.
Former leader and founder of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), ex-militant leaders, Ebikabowei Victor-Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke Tom, as well as Pastor Reuben have all at various times, in the last five weeks, attacked the administration of President Jonathan over the plight of the people of the Niger Delta.
Similarly, a prominent Niger Delta activist and former president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kimse Okoko, has said that nothing has changed for the Niger Delta people in the two years of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
This was the verdict of the former Professor of Political Science from the University of Port Harcourt, while speaking with Sunday Independent in an interview.
When asked if the government of President Goodluck Jonathan who is an Ijaw from the South South region had brought succour to the people, Okoko retorted: “Nothing has changed in the Niger Delta. People are still suffering. Pollution is still there. We are drinking water that is contaminated. Whether it is Jonathan or not is not the issue. The fact of the matter is that the living condition of the Niger Delta people still remains the same.”
President of the INC (Worldwide), Joshua Benaimesia, said: “Judging by his actions and inactions, we are seeing an unprepared president; as such, he should rather forget about the idea being touted by proxies over the 2015 Presidency because he has rubbished the goodwill of all Nigerians who voted for him overwhelmingly in 2011.”
Also, a militant group under the aegis of the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) has asked President Jonathan to conduct the forthcoming poll and quit the scene, while a coalition of socio-cultural organisations in the South South geo-political zone has thrown its weight behind agitation by some notable northern leaders to retain the controversial zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
President-General of the forum, Frederick Ekasa, expressed fears over Jonathan’s ability to successfully govern the nation without rocking the boat.
Ekasa said the NDYLF has passed a vote of no confidence on the Jonathan Presidency and will only change its position if he takes urgent and drastic steps towards solving some key problems in the Niger Delta.
DailyIndependent
The crisis of confidence between President Goodluck Jonathan and his kinsmen, the Ijaw ethnic nationality, appears to have taken a new dimension as the leadership of the umbrella body of the president’s kinsmen, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), said it is boycotting a mediation parley initiated by a presidential aide.
The meeting, which is scheduled to hold today in Lagos, is coming on the heels of the outburst of some prominent Ijaw leaders who have expressed disappointment over the dismal performance of the Jonathan administration as regards the welfare and developmental challenges of the region.
Curiously, the INC leadership as well as other prominent Ijaw leaders have claimed ignorance of the meeting and have decided to stay away from it on the ground that the proposed meeting, supposedly brokered by the presidential aide, was “self-serving.”
But the Presidency has described the proposed Lagos meeting as a good one, saying the right to meet is not reserved in the INC.
All the same, the presidential aide (names withheld) had reportedly met with one of his colleagues in the Presidency to explore means of dousing the storm that had gathered against the president from his kinsmen over alleged non-performance and complacence to the plight of the Niger Delta region.
As a prelude to today’s Lagos meeting, the presidential aide had reportedly met with the leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) on Wednesday in Abuja, but a similar one fixed for Thursday with the leadership of the INC was shunned by the body, which alleged that President Jonathan’s attitude to the Ijaw ethnic nationality “shows hatred and disdain.”
President of the IYC, Mieabiye Kuromiema, confirmed the Wednesday meeting with the presidential aide in Abuja.
INC President, Chief Joshua Benaimesia, also confirmed being invited to the Thursday meeting with the presidential aide but declined, saying the issues at stake were too vital and important for anyone apart from Jonathan to address.
Benaimesia had, penultimate week, slammed Jonathan for not doing enough for the Niger Delta, even as he warned the president not to toy with the idea of re-contesting the 2015 presidential election.
He said: “I have no regrets whatsoever for the position I have held on the matter at stake. It is not an individual affair as such; no one should think he loves the president more than those of us who have decided to come to the open to correct him.
“As president of the INC, the entire Ijaw ethnic nationality is watching me and the leadership of the INC; whatever we say today means a lot tomorrow, and whatever we refuse to say that will hunt us tomorrow we must try to say.
“I was invited to a meeting in Abuja on Thursday but I told the convener of the meeting that the issues for which he was calling me to the meeting were too big for him to handle, so I refused to go to Abuja for the meeting; although I learnt he held a similar one with the IYC.
“The truth is that all actions and inactions of the president show he hates the Ijaw people; I will say this everywhere until he changes his mien and attitude towards the Ijaws, whose blood and sweat made him what he is today.
“Today, what we witness is people saying the Ijaws are in power, they are in government; I make bold to say that those in power and government are not Ijaw people, they are Ogbia people because they have shown, including the president, that they do not like the Ijaws at all.
“How does one explain to the world that, apart from the two states of Torube and Oil Rivers we are pursuing for the Ijaws in Niger Delta, Bayelsa is also pursuing another agenda of two additional states? Who is deceiving who? It is the proverb of the hand of the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau.
“Until the president addresses the situation of the Niger Delta and correct certain things, we will not give our support to him because he has failed us as a people; and I can tell you that so many Ijaw leaders, former ministers and former lawmakers both at the federal and state levels have called to inquire about the meeting; and their view is that, as long as the INC leadership is not involved, they will stay away.”
Benaimesia said he would not attend the Lagos meeting summoned by the presidential aide because he was not invited.
“I won’t attend because I was not invited, and that shows the kind of leadership we are breeding in Ijawland. As far as INC is concerned, we are not aware of any such meeting,” he said further added.
A former senator from Bayelsa State, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, rather described the Lagos meeting as “one called for personal aggrandizement by those behind it because the issues are beyond those calling those meetings. Why can’t the president meet one on one with his kinsmen? he queried.
Nonetheless, Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak, said today’s Lagos meeting is in good direction.
“I think some people are missing the point; the president has not told anybody he wants to run as president again in 2015. So for people to hang on that and think they can ambush him is out of it. If the INC says otherwise about their son, there are several other bodies and prominent sons and daughters of Ijawland that can also say what they want.
“Even though the Presidency has no hand in the said meeting, I think it is in good direction and coming at a time we need to understand that Mr. President is not an Ijaw president but that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Gulak told Sunday Independent on telephone.
Former leader and founder of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), ex-militant leaders, Ebikabowei Victor-Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke Tom, as well as Pastor Reuben have all at various times, in the last five weeks, attacked the administration of President Jonathan over the plight of the people of the Niger Delta.
Similarly, a prominent Niger Delta activist and former president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kimse Okoko, has said that nothing has changed for the Niger Delta people in the two years of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
This was the verdict of the former Professor of Political Science from the University of Port Harcourt, while speaking with Sunday Independent in an interview.
When asked if the government of President Goodluck Jonathan who is an Ijaw from the South South region had brought succour to the people, Okoko retorted: “Nothing has changed in the Niger Delta. People are still suffering. Pollution is still there. We are drinking water that is contaminated. Whether it is Jonathan or not is not the issue. The fact of the matter is that the living condition of the Niger Delta people still remains the same.”
President of the INC (Worldwide), Joshua Benaimesia, said: “Judging by his actions and inactions, we are seeing an unprepared president; as such, he should rather forget about the idea being touted by proxies over the 2015 Presidency because he has rubbished the goodwill of all Nigerians who voted for him overwhelmingly in 2011.”
Also, a militant group under the aegis of the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) has asked President Jonathan to conduct the forthcoming poll and quit the scene, while a coalition of socio-cultural organisations in the South South geo-political zone has thrown its weight behind agitation by some notable northern leaders to retain the controversial zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
President-General of the forum, Frederick Ekasa, expressed fears over Jonathan’s ability to successfully govern the nation without rocking the boat.
Ekasa said the NDYLF has passed a vote of no confidence on the Jonathan Presidency and will only change its position if he takes urgent and drastic steps towards solving some key problems in the Niger Delta.
DailyIndependent
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