I will engage Ijaw youths to end oil theft in Niger Delta – Comrade Ekerefe, IYC presidential hopeful
An aspirant to the office of the worldwide President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe has promised to strategically engage the youths of Ijaw nation and other Niger Delta youths to end oil theft and other economic sabotage in the region if he is elected.
Ekerefe, during an interactive session with Journalists at the NUJ press centre in Yenagoa on Wednesday over his aspiration to become the 9th President of the Ijaw Youths Council in the July elective convention, also advised the Federal Government to give licences to indigenous companies that have the relevant capacities to go into modular refinaries, saying it’s one of the surest ways to stop oil theft.
Ekerefe, who was also the immediate past National Spokesman of IYC, said if elected the President of the IYC, he is coming to engage the youths of the region to understand that violence agitations are no longer tenable, rather they should engage their minds in meaningful sector such as ICT, agriculture and other areas that will guaranty them better future.
He noted that during his tenure as the IYC spokesman, he was able to train 80 Ijaw youths on computer coding, programming, graphic designing and other aspects of computer that are very relevant to the societal problems, while the second batch training of 115 youths is ongoing to help them change their minds from agitations.
He said: “Oil theft is another major issue that is affecting the economy of our country, what is locally known as pofire is destroying our environment, the life expectancy rate of our people is being cut short, as a result of this nefarious activities that is going on, IYC should be able to work with the government to put an end to oil theft and illegal oil bunkering.
“When I come as the president, I will advise the government to give licences to indigenous companies that have the relevant capacities to go into modular refinaries, that is the only way the issue of oil theft, and illegal oil bunkering can be addressed to it’s nearest minimum.
“You can not continue to use the military to intimidate our people, continue to use government and multinational oil companies to siphon the oil and gas resources that are in the Niger Delta region, the people are poor, no employment, and you expect that they will not go into economic sabotage, the only panacea to solve these problem is to encourage modular refinaries.
“As a spokesperson, I have taken IYC from an organization of just agitation to human capacity building, because I realized that we cannot be doing all the agitations to call on Government to attend to our issues when the IYC as an organization has not been able to look onward to see how we can also build the capacities of our youths in the contemporary society to rise up to the challenges that affect us, and I realized that ICT is the major area where our people are lagging behind.
“In 1998 when we started, there was no technology, it was basically predicated on arms agitations, in this era, we have technology that you can be at the comfort of your house and just click into your botons and the entire world will know what is happening.
Most times when we approach multinational oil companies on how our people can be carried along, the question they always ask is that are your people computer compliance?, and quite frankly, most of our people that we have recommended for job opportunities do not have the ICT knowledge to fit in into various job opportunities, and we saw that there is no need for us to engage on baseless agitation that are not even yielding any result, so we went into the ICT sector and today we are able to train over 80 Ijaw youths on computer coding, programming, graphic designing and other aspects of computer that are very relevant to the societal problems.
“They were all certified, and computer laptops were given to all the beneficiaries that participated in the first batch of our free ICT programme, the second batch of the programme has already commenced, where over 115 Ijaw youths across Ijaw nation that are resident in Bayelsa are currently undergoing that programme and by the special the special grace of God, they will soon complete their three months compulsory computer ICT programme, and they will be given computer laptops and starter packs.
“For IYC to get to the next level, human capital development is very important, the era where we will be doing only agitation is over, the world is gradually moving into technology, agriculture, including the oil and gas, so if we can build the capacities of the Ijaw youths in these sectors, and other relevant areas where they can have expertise, there is no way multinational oil companies who are operating within the Niger Delta region can tell our people that they do not have the necessary tools participate in the businesses that is going on in oil and gas sector.
“We have not been strategic enough in our engagement, that is why most times, they do not even yield the desired result, I want to lead IYC that is more strategic in our approach, I do not believe that IYC in this 21st century should be going to companies yards and be blocking companies gates to demand for the rights of our people, we can do that through constructive engagement, without even going into violence confrontation, it all depends on how we market the IYC, and make it look attractive and responsible and reasonable organizations will partner with us.
“As Spokesman of IYC, I have started that engagements and by the special grace of God, if I emerge as the President of IYC, we will expand the frontiers of the achievements that we have already recorded in the ICT sector. We will partner with the bank of industry to access soft loans and grants for our youths to engage in SMEs.
“In the area of security, we are all aware that the IYC has a formidable structure that can defend and protect the territorial boundaries of the Ijaw nation, the reason that they are influx of herdsmen into our territories and insecurity in our land is that we have not been able to organize ourselves to work with relevant security agencies to ensure that we give intelligence for security agencies to work with.
“So, as President of IYC, I will activate the clans in what I will call Ijaw Nation Defense Council where all clans chairmen will be automatic coordinators, we will give them the necessary gadgets so that they will be able to disseminate information to the national executive council and for security agencies to work with.” He said.
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