Ijaw youths, under the umbrella of Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, have commenced activities to mark the 25th Silver Jubilee of the Kaiama Declaration and founding of the council.
The Declaration that led to the founding of the IYC was issued by Ijaw youths on December 11, 1998.
It was issued in the town of Kaiama, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The youths, representing over 40 Ijaw clans, had converged to articulate their aspirations for the Ijaw people and demand an end to 40 years of environmental damage and underdevelopment.
Addressing newsmen in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Monday, the Spokesman of the IYC ninth National Executive Council, Comrade Princewill Binebai, expressed gratitude to the founding fathers and leaders for their vision, aspirations and contributions to the continued growth and survival of the body.
Binebai said: “Today, on behalf of the entire ninth NEC of the IYC, we express our gratitude to be part of those championing the 25 years existence of the council cum Kaiama declaration.
“While we are grateful to the Ijaw nation for entrusting us with the council leadership, we want to reassure the Ijaw people that we will not renege on our quest to deliver a purposeful leadership to the people.
“We are glad to announce to the Ijaw nation that we will be doing the foundation laying ceremony of the Council Global secretariat here in Yenagoa that has never happened before.
“For us, we cannot be saying we are IYC Worldwide but all our activities are revolving around Nigeria alone, hence we have taken issues of the Ijaw people to the global space.
“Wherein, the ninth NEC has taken steps to take our people to Ghana, Kenya and Dubai for global climate and plastic pollution conferences that have affected our environment gravely.”
Binebai said the 25 years celebration of the Kaiama Declaration and IYC remained very key and important to the Ijaw people, hence the need to review “where we are coming from, where we are and where we ought to be.
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“The assurance from the ninth NEC is that we are going to consolidate on the achievements recorded by previous administrations of the council and improve on the gains recorded so far.
“We are very grateful to the founding fathers of the council and our dear leaders that have contributed a lot to the continued growth and survival of the council.”
Binebai listed the activities to mark the silver jubilee to include foundation laying of the IYC global secretariat, public lectures and launching of IYC database.
Others are the award night and grand finale at the Ox-bow lake Pavilion and Kaiama Grammar School field.
