The Patriotic Ijaw Leaders of Thought (PILOT) join other well-meaning and patriotic Ijaws around the world to congratulate the newly elected president of the INC, Prof. Ben Ogele Okaba and the entire National Executive Council on their victory at the just concluded elections. Your victory is a victory for all Ijaws as this signals a new beginning and a restart for us as a people. We also want to state from the onset that ours is not just a congratulatory messages, but a wake-up call for the new INC leadership to begin to envision an Ijaw nation that is ready and prepared to take its pride of place in the comity of ethnic nationalities and position itself to show all Ijaws the way.
The peaceful way Ijaws conducted themselves throughout the electoral process was a clear indication that Ijaw people were tired of the comatose and sleeping nature of the INC for a long time. The Ijaws were no longer comfortable that the Ijaw voice has been missing from national discourse at this critical time in the history of Nigeria.
From mainstream to social media, the sounds are very clear that other ethnic nations have envisioned and developed strategies to guarantee their survival and existence in the event of a failed Nigeria as the country seem to have met all indicators for a country to be adjudged a failed state. Popular definition describes a failed state as a state that is not able to consistently and legitimately enforce its laws, provide for its citizens basic goods and services. That is when the state is unable to protect its population from armed invasion and its legitimacy becomes compromised, as the elites in society reject the rules regulating power and the accumulation and distribution of wealth. The manifest culminating factors are insurgency, high crime rates, ineffective and impenetrable bureaucracy, corruption, judicial incompetence and military interference in politics. This is sad reality of our country today even though we may not have witnessed a military takeover, the signs are clear for overt military interference.
What does the above mean for the new INC leadership? This calls for concerted efforts on the part of the INC leadership to galvanize and mobilize internal resources and capacity, dig out and exhume our human and material resources to develop an Ijaw vision and a road map that will prioritize Ijaw collective action in the short, medium and long-term, – strategic interest that can easily be understood, and implemented by all from community to national level. The vision needs to look into Ijaw food and human security concerns, political, economic and environmental interests, unity and national cohesion of the Ijaw people.
As we all await your formal inauguration, we want you and your executive to avert your minds to these critical issues of national relevance.
Once again congratulations.
HRM Chief Ayakeme Whisky
Coordinator