A’Ibom Elders React to National Issues, Say All Not Well With Nigeria

A’Ibom Elders React to National Issues, Say All Not Well With Nigeria

Elder statesmen, past political and economic players from Akwa Ibom state, last week rose at a meeting convened by the organization, Adaha Akwa Ibom Organization, and declared that all was not well with the country. The Elders said that the spate of violence and the reaction of a section of the country to the unfolding issues of the activities of Boko Haram portend danger to the country if not well tackled. The group, which aims at presenting the voice of Akwa Ibom people, the way Afenifere, Oha N’Eze Nd’Igbo, Arewa Consultative Forum, does for the South West, South East and the North, respectively, condemned the near tacit approval of the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents, and called on northern elders to call their youths to order.
“We call on Northern Elders and Leaders (including Alhaji Umaru Dikko who once chided Southern Elders for not controlling their youths) to come out of their slumber and control their youths who are now activists inside Boko Haram and call them to order forthwith. For, as Mr. President rightly observed, Boko Haram are not spirits, they live in the midst of people in the North”, the communiqué the group presented read.
The group of Elder statesmen, frowned at the comparison recently made between the youth restiveness in the Niger Delta and the insurrection by Boko Haram in the north and said such comparison lacks factual bases. “Adaha wishes to unequivocally debunk the unholy comparison by some Northern elements (like the so called Arewa Citizens Action for change, in the Daily Sun Newspaper of 27th January 2012) of Boko Haram with the erstwhile Niger Delta militancy. We maintain that such comparison lacks both basis and merit. For the avoidance of doubt, militancy in the Niger Delta Region was a consequence of years of resource exploitation (including oil lifting, allocation of oil blocks, local content, employment opportunity, non-compensation for oil spill and ecological damages etc) and total neglect of the region’s infrastructure, welfare and provocative marginalization from the benefits of the oil and gas industry. The militants were fighting for the emancipation of the Niger Delta citizens, and their leaders were not faceless”, the group posited.
They then called on President Jonathan to take very serious actions in tackling the Boko Haram challenges. The group further berated those it called traditional allies, now turning out to be the champions of hate against the south south people and a threat to the leadership of a south south son as Nigeria’s president. The communiqué signed by the group’s National President, Obong Michael Afangide and secretary, Dr Maurice Ebong, in the light of prevailing situation in the country called for a National Conference that would not be sovereign to be convened for the various ethnic groups in Nigeria to come together and dialogue on the way forward for the country, urging all ethnic groups in Nigeria seeking for self determination to do so without shedding innocent blood.